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Chapter Text

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder than my best friend turning out to be part goat and telling me the old ladies I’d seen were the Fates, and my math teacher a Fury, our car exploded in a flash of blinding light. I felt weightless then crushed and fried. I peeled myself off the back of the driver’s seat and said, “Ow.”

“Percy!” my mom shouted.

“I’m okay,” I said, shaking my head.

I wasn’t dead. The car hadn’t totally exploded, just swerved into a ditch. The driver’s side doors were pressed into the mud. The roof had torn open and rain poured in.

Lightning. That was the only thing I could think of with the storm going on. We’d been blasted off the road.

There was a motionless lump in the backseat next to me.

“Grover!”

I shoved at his shoulder, and he groaned, “Food.”

“Percy, we have to…” my mom said, her voice trailing off.

I twisted around to look behind us. In another flash of lightning, I saw a large, dark figure heading for us. I felt a shiver go down my spine. The guy was too large to be a normal person. He looked top heavy and bulky, maybe even fuzzy. His upraised arms made it look like he had horns. Maybe he was just wearing a mascot head or something.

“Who is—,”

“Percy,” my mother said sternly. “Get out of the car.”

There was another bolt of lightning, and I shut my eyes. Then I heard the sound of the car door opening up. I jerked around, eyes flying open. It wasn’t the big guy. It was some blond college kid wearing a Columbia t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. He had a golden bow on his back and a quiver of arrows on his belt. I froze, not sure what to do.

The guy reached down, and I had to be seeing things because I kind of thought he was glowing gold like some sort of human night light. He took hold of Grover’s seatbelt and pulled. The whole thing came free of the car, and I gaped at him. It was like something out of an action movie.

He grabbed hold of Grover without letting him fall onto me. He pulled him one handedly out of the car.

“Come on,” he told me.

I looked back towards the big guy. He was still heading for us making weird grunting and snorting noises. I quickly unbuckled myself and climbed towards the opened door. “What about my mom?” I asked him.

“Don’t worry about me,” my mom said. “You need to run. Do you see that big pine tree? That’s the property line. You need to get past it. There’s a big farmhouse in the valley on the other side.”

“I got her,” the college kid said, giving me a smile before shifting positions on the side of the car to open the front passenger door.

“You,” my mom said, sounding shocked at the sight of the guy. “You’re…”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” the guy said, giving her a charming smile.

I scrambled out of the car, taking another look at the big guy following us. He was much closer now. His arms weren’t up in the air. I could see his fists, loose at his side. The giant mass too big to be a person’s head really was his head. What I’d thought were arms…were really horns.

The college guy hauled my mom out of the car as easily as he had Grover.

“Percy, you need to go,” my mom said, paying almost no attention to the guy helping her. “Please.”

I got annoyed, at my mom and Grover, definitely at the thing with horns following us, and maybe even a little at this random college guy. “We’re going together. Come on, Mom.”

“I can’t cross the property line,” she said as the guy helped her down onto solid ground.

“Pasiphaë’s son won’t harm them,” the college guy said to me, cool and confident. “He’s only interested in you. You need to run.”

“I’m not leaving,” I said as I started to pick up my friend. “One of you help me with Grover.”

For a second I thought college guy looked annoyed.

“Go,” the guy said, helping my mother towards me and Grover. “Be quick. I can only distract him.”

As we gathered Grover up and got his arms over our shoulders, college guy pulled his bow from his shoulders. He took the time to string it before following after us. Then he started shooting.

I made the mistake of trying to see where they hit. They were only flashbangs, hitting the ground around the guy following us. Except it wasn’t a guy. He was nearly seven foot tall, completely hairy above the waist, and had a bull’s head rather than a human one. I recognized who it was.

“That’s—,”

“Don’t say it,” my mom warned. “Names have power.”

I faced forward and tried to hurry. The college kid easily kept up with us, shooting more and more flashbangs which honestly only seemed to be making the Minotaur madder based on the huffing and puffing I could hear. I could also hear the college kid muttering angrily about restrictions of some kind.

“Percy,” my mom said, bringing my attention back to our goal. “When he spots us, he’ll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way. Make sure to go to the side. He can’t change directions very well. Do you understand?”

“How do you know so much?”

“I’ve been worrying about this for a long time. I should have expected it. I was selfish, keeping you with me.”

“Keeping me with you, but—,”

The Minotaur bellowed in rage, cutting me off. I could hear his heavy footsteps following us up the hill.

“Go, Percy!” Mom said, pulling Grover from me. “Remember what I told you!”

“Hurry,” the college kid urged. “I can’t interfere much more.”

I didn’t want to, but if it was true it was only after me, I had to run. I needed to lead it away from my mother. I veered to the left, running as fast as I could. I stopped and turned around, and saw the beast bearing down on me. He bent over, aiming his horns right at me, then charged.

The college kid shot an arrow, not a flashbang. I saw it. The tip entered the eye of the monster then sailed on through his head without causing any damage before flying off into the distance.

I wanted to bolt right then, but I had to wait for the last possible second. Then I dove to the side. The bull-man continued on past me and bellowed in anger. He turned, but not towards me. He faced my mother as she was setting Grover down.

We’d reached the top of the hill, and I could see the big farmhouse down in the valley like my mother had said. The lights were on, glowing a homey yellow. It had to be a half mile away. We’d never make it.

“Run, Percy!” my mother shouted, backing away from Grover and back down the hill. “I can’t go any farther. Run!”

“Go!” the college kid ordered, arrow trained on the Minotaur even though the last one had done nothing.

I just stood there stock still, frozen in fear, watching as the beast charged her. She tried to dodge to the side like I had, but the bull-man stuck his arm out to catch her by the neck. He lifted her up as she scratched at his hand and kicked out her legs.

“Go!” the college kid snapped as he loosed more arrows at the beast, but they kept sailing right through him.

“Mom!” I shouted.

The monster closed his fist around her neck, and she dissolved, breaking apart like golden glitter and falling to the ground. One flash and then she was gone.

“No!”

I was angry now instead of scared. Strength surged through just like it had when Mrs. Dodds had attacked me.

The beast advanced on Grover, reaching out for him like he was going to dissolve him too. I wasn’t gonna let that happen, and the college kid’s bow was totally useless.

“What are you doing?” he hissed at me as I stripped off my red raincoat.

“Hey!” I shouted, ignoring him. “Hey, stupid! Ground beef!”

“Kid, run, I can’t protect you like this!” the guy shouted at me.

But it was working. The bull was turning towards me.

“You better have a plan,” college guy said as he shifted positions like that would make it so his arrows would work.

I didn’t exactly have a plan, but I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my jacket.

The beast charged at me faster than before, and he had his arms out to grab me if I dodged.

It felt like time slowed. I tensed, and since I couldn’t jump to the side, I launched myself as high up as I could go, kicking off the monster’s thick skull. I rotated in the air, coming back down right on his neck. Less than a second later, his head hit the tree, nearly jarring me from my hold.

The monster smelled awful, like week old B.O. combined with rotting meat, but I locked my arms around his horns for dear life. He thrashed about, trying to toss me, but I refused to let go.

“Food,” Grover moaned, and the Minotaur swung around towards him.

He pawed the ground, and I saw my mother dissolving into glitter in front of my eyes. Rage flooded my system, and I wrapped my hands around one horn, pulling it with all the strength I had. The monster made a disgruntled noise, and then the horn snapped.

He screamed, his voice going painfully shrill, wrenching to the side and flinging me away. I landed hard on my back, and my head cracking against a rock. Everything was blurry as I stood with the broken off horn in my hands.

The Minotaur charged at me.

I rolled instinctively to the side and came up on my knees. As the beast rushed by me, I drove the sharp horn up into his side and underneath his hairy ribcage. The bull roared in distressed pain. He jerked away from me then crumbled away into sand that blew away the same way Mrs. Dodds had. He was gone.

“Kid?” the college guy asked quietly.

The rain had stopped. I smelled like wet cow, and my hands were shaking. My head was pounding. My mother had vanished in a flash of light. I wanted to curl up on my side and cry, but there was still Grover and the weird college guy. I staggered to my feet, taking a step towards Grover.

“I got him,” the college guy said, and somehow his bow was gone. Maybe he’d dropped it. “Just head for the house.”

I watched him pick Grover up in a firemen’s carry as I brushed the back of my hands over my cheeks. I stumbled my way down the hill towards the farmhouse. When I nearly went down for real, the guy grabbed me by the upper arm. He was gentle, but I could tell how strong he was. His hand was warm even though we’d all been out in the rain.

“You’re safe now,” he murmured to me. “It’s safe here. You’re safe.”

But my mother wasn’t here.

When we made it to the porch, he guided me to one of the chairs there. “Alright, sit down before you pass out and make your concussion worse.”

The guy went to knock on the door, Grover still on his shoulders. A familiar-looking bearded man answered. There was a pretty blond girl with him, and I wondered if she was the college guy’s sister.

“He’s the one,” she said. “He must be.”

“Silence, Annabeth,” the man said. “We need to get him inside.”

“Be careful with him,” college guy said quietly. “He just lost his mother.”

I couldn’t keep my eyes open after that.

Chapter Text

I woke a few times, barely catching anything going on around me, and when I stayed awake, I found myself sitting in a deck chair on a wrap around porch gazing at green meadows. It smelled like strawberries rather than car exhaust, and I couldn’t hear any sort of traffic. There was a quilt over my legs and a pillow propping up my head. My mouth was dry and tasted nasty.

There was a drink on a side table next to me. It looked like iced apple juice with a straw which sounded amazing to me. I almost dropped the glass trying to bring it closer.

“Careful.”

I saw Grover standing by the railing, looking exhausted. He had a shoe box under one arm, and he was wearing a bright orange shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. He also had on jeans and converse rather than having goat legs.

Maybe I’d just had a really weird and too realistic nightmare.

“You saved my life,” Grover said as he approached me. “This was the least I could do. I went back up the hill, and well, I thought you might want this.”

He carefully set the shoebox in my lap. Nestled inside was a broken off bull’s horn.

It hadn’t been a nightmare.

“The Minotaur.”

“Uh, Percy, you really shouldn’t—,”

“That’s what they called him in the myths, right?” I asked. “Half man, half bull.”

Grover shuffled his feet. “You’ve been out for two days. How much do you remember?”

“My mom, is she really?”

He avoided my eyes.

I stared out past the porch railing. It was a bright sunny day. The grass was green, there were acres of strawberries, groves of trees, and a winding stream. There were rolling hills surrounding the valley, and the tallest one right in front of me had the huge pine tree I’d used to fight the Minotaur. It looked grand and beautiful with a clear sky for a background.

My mother was dead. Everything should be cold and withered. Nothing should be beautiful.

“I’m sorry,” Grover sniffled. “I’m a failure. I’m the worst satyr in the world.”

I should probably care that satyrs and Minotaurs were real, but all that mattered was that my mother really had been choked until she’d turned into glitter. I was on my own. An orphan. Would I have to live with Smelly Gabe? Definitely not. I’d do everything I could to avoid that.

Then I thought of something else. “What about that college kid?”

“College kid?” Grover asked, almost stopping his sniffling.

“The guy with the bow. What happened to him?”

“There was a guy with a bow?”

“Yeah, he was the one that carried you here.”

Grover shook his head. “They just told me you’d killed the monster. It could have been one of the campers, I guess. I’m so sorry. This was my fault. I was supposed to protect you.”

“No, it wasn’t,” I told him. “Like did my mom ask you to protect me?”

“No, but it’s my job. I’m a keeper. Or at least, I was.”

“But why,” I said, cutting off as I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me.

“Don’t strain yourself. Here, drink this,” he said, offering me the glass and putting the straw to my lips.

I almost choked on the drink not expecting it to taste like freshly baked cookies, specifically my mother’s homemade blue chocolate chip cookies. It filled my chest with warmth, better than even hot chocolate on a cold night. It felt like my mom had brushed her hand through my hair and told me everything was going to be alright. I drained the whole glass.

“Was it good?” Grover asked.

I nodded.

“What did it taste like?” he asked.

Before I could answer, three blond kids had run up to the railing.

“Hey,” the oldest looking one said, smacking one of the posts to make sure she had our attention. “We heard you saw Dad. Was he okay?”

“Your dad?” Grover asked, voice going up in pitch.

“College guy?” I asked, so confused. I could believe the kids were related to the guy since they all seemed to have the same blond hair and matching features, but there was no way some guy who was twenty at max was old enough to have what looked like a ten year old kid. “He’s your dad?”

“Did he have a gold bow?” the second kid asked.

“Yeah.”

“That was him!” the third kid shouted, all three brightening up. “Did he say anything?”

“No, sorry,” I said, feeling bad at the way their faces fell again. “But he was cool. He carried Grover to the house.”

Grover made a strangled noise as the three kids giggled.

“Come on, we need to see Chiron and Mr. D,” Grover said, helping me to my feet.

“Bye,” one of the kids called before they ran off again.

I felt like one strong breeze from being blown over trying to walk around the porch. Grover offered to carry the horn, but I refused to let it go. That little souvenir had cost me my mother. I wasn’t about to let it go.

My jaw dropped when we rounded the corner of the house. We had to be on the north shore of Long Island as I could see the water about a mile from the porch. The place had to be some sort of reenactor camp because aside from the farmhouse, everything looked like it had been plopped down straight from ancient Greece. Except there were also volleyball sandpits and a small lake where people canoed with the modern plastic ones. There was a cluster of cabins on the edge of the woods with kids riding horses on the paths behind them. Some of the horses even looked like they had wings.

At the other end of the porch, two men sat at a card table. The blond girl from the night I arrived was leaning against the railing. Just how many blond kids did this camp have?

The man facing me was short and round with curly black hair and a red nose. He wore a tiger striped Hawaiian shirt, and he looked like he could have fit right in at Smelly Gabe’s poker table.

“That’s Mr. D,” Grover said quietly to me. “He’s the camp director. You have to be polite to him. The girl’s Annabeth Chase, one of the campers. She’d been here longer than just about anybody. You already know Chiron.”

The second man at the table turned to face me, and I recognized his wheelchair, brown hair, and scraggly beard.  

“Mr. Brunner,” I said, surprised.

He smiled at me. “Ah, good, you’re feeling better. Now we have four for pinochle.”

He gestured to the chair to the write of Mr. D who looked at me sullenly and sighed as I sat down.

“I suppose I have to say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now don’t expect me to be happy about it,” Mr. D said.

“Thanks,” I said, scooting my chair away from him. If there was one thing I’d learned from Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult had been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

“Annabeth?” Mr. Brunner asked.

She stepped forward.

“This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don’t you go check on Percy's bunk? We’ll be putting him in cabin eleven for now.”

“Sure, Chiron,” she said.

She was around my age, maybe a couple inches taller, and a lot more athletic looking. She could have been a stereotypical California girl with her blond hair and tan, but her eyes were a stormy gray. They were pretty, but also kind of intimidating. She glanced down at the horn then back up, and I thought she might say something nice like good job or that she was impressed by me.

Instead, she said, “You drool when you sleep.”

Then she sprinted off the porch like the other kids had.

“So, you work here, Mr. Brunner?” I asked to get as far away from that topic as possible.

“I’m afraid that was a pseudonym,” he said. “You may call me Chiron.”

“Okay,” I said, bewildered. I turned to the director. “And Mr. D…does that stand for something?”

“Young man,” he said as he folded the cards. “Names are powerful things. You don’t just go around using them for no reason.”

“Oh, right, sorry.”

“Grover, sit down,” Mr. D commanded.

“Yes, sir,” he said and sat across from me right away.

“You do know how to play pinochle?” Mr. D then asked me suspiciously.

“I’m afraid not.”

“I’m afraid not, sir.”

“Sir,” I tacked on, liking him even less.

“It’s one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules.”

“I’m sure the boy can learn,” Chiron said.

“Please, what is this place? What am I doing here?” I asked.

“Percy, did you mother tell you nothing?” he asked.

“She said…she was afraid to send me here even though my father wanted her to.”

“Typical,” Mr. D said as he finished dealing. “That’s how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?”

“What?” I asked.

He explained the rules quickly, and I bid.

“I’m afraid there’s too much to tell, and our usual orientation film won’t be sufficient,” Chiron said.

“Orientation film?” I asked.

“Percy, you’re aware that Grover is a satyr, and that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad,” Chiron said rather than answering me. “What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods —the ones you call the Greek gods— are very much alive.”

I stared at everyone around the table. I waited for someone to shout psych or something. No one did.

“Wait, you’re telling me there’s such a thing as God?” I asked.

“Well, capital G, God, is a different matter altogether. Gods, plural, as in great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors, the immortal gods of Olympus. They exist.”

“Zeus, Hera, Apollo,” I said. “You mean them.”

There was a sound of distant thunder despite the cloudless sky. The sun also seemed to get brighter for a moment.

“Young man,” Mr. D said. “I would really be less casual about throwing those names around if I were you.”

“But they’re stories, myths, to explain lightning and seasons and stuff,” I said. “What people believed before there was science.”

“Science,” Mr. D scoffed. “Tell me, Perseus Jackson—,”

I flinched at the sound of my real name. I never told it to anyone.

“—what will people think of your science two thousand years from now? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That’s what. Oh, I love mortals. They have absolutely no sense of perspective.”

He said mortals as if he wasn’t one.

“Percy, you may choose to believe or not, but immortal means immortal. Can you imagine for a moment existing as you are for all of time?” Chiron asked.

“You mean, whether people believed in you or not,” I said.

“Exactly,” Chiron said with a nod. “If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning?”

I frowned. “I wouldn’t like it, but I don’t believe in gods.”

“Oh, you’d better start before one of them incinerates you,” Mr. D murmured.

“Please, sir, he’s just lost his mother. He’s in shock,” Grover said.

“A lucky thing, too,” Mr. D said. “It’s bad enough I’m confined to this miserable job taking care of boys who don’t even believe.”

He waved his hand and a golden goblet appeared on the table as if it was crafted from the air then it filled with red wine. I gaped at it, but Chiron hardly looked up from his cards.

“Your restrictions,” Chiron said.

“Dear me,” Mr. D said, feigning surprise before he yelled up to the sky, “Old habits! Sorry!”

There was more thunder, then Mr. D waved his hand and the wine transformed into a can of diet coke.

“Mr. D offended his father by taking fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off limit,” Chiron explained.

“A wood nymph,” I repeated dumbly.

“Yes, father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition, ghastly!” Mr. D said, shaking his head as if he’d tasted something nasty. “Absolutely horrid ten years.”

“And…your father is…”

“I thought you taught this boy the basics, Chiron,” Mr. D said. “My father is Zeus, of course.”

I ran through D names from Greek mythology. “You’re Dionysus, the god of wine.”

Mr. D rolled his eyes. “Obviously. What, did you think I was Aphrodite?”

“You’re a god?”

“Yes, child.”

“A god. You.”

He turned to look me straight in the eyes. There was a sort of purplish fire there, a hint that this whiny little man was only showing a hint of his true power. I saw grape vines choking unbelievers, drunken warriors possessed by battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers and their faces into dolphin snouts. I knew if I pushed, Mr. D would show me worse.

“Would you like to test me?” he asked.

“No, no, sir.”

He looked away, and I felt like I could breathe more easily.

“I believe I win,” he said, referring to the card game I’d barely been paying attention to.

“Not quite, Mr. D,” Chiron said, setting down his cards. “The game goes to me.”

I thought for half a second that Mr. D would vaporize Chiron, but he sighed.

“The guy last night, with the bow,” I said. “He glowed.”

“Yes,” Chiron answered.

“He’s also a god?” I asked. “Which one is he?”

“You couldn’t guess from the bow?” Mr. D asked. “I know you at least know of his existence since you already listed him.”

“Apollo,” I said, getting a confirming nod from Chiron. “Why was he there? Was he punished, too?”

Mr. D chortled. “No, but he is a glutton for it. He does so enjoy flirting with the rules.”

“He is the god of the protection of the young,” Chiron said. “He assists the satyrs where he can in escorting children to the camp.”

I nodded slowly, still trying to sort out the three blond kids who’d called him their dad. “But he couldn’t do much. I saw his arrow go right through without doing any damage.”

“Of course,” Mr. D said as he got up from his seat. “Gods aren’t supposed to interfere in mortal affairs, especially not concerning their own children. Come on, Grover. We need to discuss your less than stellar performance.”

Grover immediately began to sweat. “Y-yes, sir.”

Mr. D shot me a look. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson, and mind your manners."

He strode into the farmhouse with Grover dejectedly following.

"Is Grover gonna be okay?" I asked Chiron.

"Mr. D isn't really mad," he said with a nod. "He just hates his job. He's been grounded, I guess you could say, and he can't stand waiting around another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."

"Mount Olympus. There's really a palace there?" I asked.

"There's the mountain in Greece, and then there's the home of the gods, the seat of their power, which did used to be on that mountain. It's still called that out of respect, but the palace moves just as the gods do."

"You mean the Greek gods are here in America?" I asked. "Not just Mr. D at this camp?"

"Certainly. The gods move with the heart of the west."

"The what?"

"What's called western civilization. It's not an abstract concept, but a living force. The gods are a part of it, maybe the source of it, but they are tied so closely to it they couldn't fade unless all of western civilization were obliterated. It started in Greece then the heart of the fire moved to Rome and so did the gods with a few name changes along the way."

"And then they died with the empire."

"Died? No. Did the west die? Besides, only the western empire collapsed. The gods actually moved east that one time to what is now Instanbul until the thirteenth century when they then moved west to Europe. They spent a few centuries in England, but now America is the heart of the flame. All you need to do is track the architecture. Every place they've ruled in the last three thousand years you can see them in paintings, statues, the most important buildings. So Olympus is here, and we are here."

He said we like I was included in all this.

"But who are you, Chiron? Who am I?" I asked.

Chiron shifted as if he was going to stand from his wheelchair. "Well, who you are is the question we all want answered, isn't it? For now, though, you will need a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet and time for plenty of lessons tomorrow."

Then he stood, but there was something strange about how he did it. The blanket fell from his lap, but his legs didn't move. His waist kept stretching up over his belt, and it looked like white velvet leggings until I realized it was fur. He pulled his first leg out, revealing a knobby knee and a hoof, and three more followed. He had the bottom half of a horse, and the wheelchair was left as an empty box with some fake human legs attached to the front.

I sat there staring at my half horse half man ex Latin teacher.

"What a relief," he said, shaking out one of his back legs. "Now come, Percy. Time to meet the other campers."

Chapter Text

Chiron gave me a tour of the camp, explaining the strawberry fields were to cover the camp's expenses and greeting and introducing me to a few of the campers as we passed them. Most of them were older than me, and the satyrs we saw looked bigger than Grover. What kids there were around my age all looked at me like they expected me to do a backflip or something.

I asked Chiron about what would happen to Grover, and I thought it was unfair that him getting me here wouldn't be considered a success because I ditched him in New York. I didn't have as much of an argument for Apollo himself carrying Grover over the property line. It was pretty shocking to hear Grover was actually twenty eight because satyr matured half as fast as humans.

Then a thought came to me. "Chiron, if the gods and Olympus and everything are all real..."

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

Chiron frowned. “Yes, child. There is a place where spirits go after death, but I would urge you to put that out of your mind. Now let me show you the woods.”

I held in a sigh. I didn’t want him to think I was too interested in the Underworld.

As we drew closer to the forest, I realized how large it really was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley with trees so tall and thick you could believe they were older than the United States.

“The woods are stocked if you care to try your luck, but go armed,” Chiron said.

“Stocked with what?” I asked. “What am I supposed to arm myself with?”

“You’ll see with capture the flag on Friday. Do you have your own sword and shield?”

“My own?”

“No, I don’t suppose you would,” he said. “I think size five will do. I’ll visit the armory later.”

I wanted to ask what sort of summer camp had an armory, but thinking about the Minotaur and Apollo’s useless arrows, a sword might have helped the night I arrived. The tour continued to the archery range where I was pretty sure I recognized three blond kids there. After that came the canoeing lake, stables, javelin range, and an amphitheater. There was even an arena which I thought was for gladiator fights before Chiron assured me it wasn’t.

“And here’s the mess hall,” Chiron said, gesturing to an outdoor pavilion with Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. They were a dozen stone picnic tables and no roof or walls.

“What do you do if it rains?” I asked.

Chiron gave me a strange look.

“We still have to eat, don’t we?”

“It doesn’t rain here,” he said.

I decided that wasn’t worth trying to argue about.

He then showed me the cabins. They were a weird collection of buildings in the shape of a U nestled in the woods by the lake. Aside from the brass number they shared over the doors, odds on the left and evens on the right, they didn’t look anything alike. Nine had smokestacks like a factory where four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof of real grass. Seven looked like it was made out of solid gold and almost hurt to look at in the sunlight.

All twelve faced a common area the size of a soccer field decorated with statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple basketball hoops which seemed like the only modern thing in the place. In the exact center of the field was a huge fire pit which smoldered despite the warmth of the afternoon. A girl of around nine was poking around the flames with a stick.

The pair of cabins at the head of the U looked like his and hers mausoleums, with cabin one being larger and cabin two decorated with peacocks.

“Zeus and Hera?” I guessed.

“Correct,” Chiron said as there was a rumble of thunder. “Though you should refrain from using their names.”

“Right,” I said. “Their cabins look pretty empty.”

“Several of the cabins are. No one stays in one, two, three, or eight.”

Alright, so each god worked like a mascot for each cabin, one for each Olympian. But why have empty cabins?

I stopped in front of cabin three, first on the left. It wasn’t grand like cabin one, but low and solid. The walls were made of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral like they were plucked straight out of the sea. I tried to peak into the open doorway.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” Chiron warned me as he put a hand on my shoulder and steered me away. “Come along, Percy.”

The rest of the cabins seemed to be crowded with campers. Number five was red all over with a boar’s head over the door and rock music spilling out of the windows. It was filled with mean looking kids, a few of them arm wrestling. The loudest girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen, caught me looking and sneered back at me. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, but bigger, tougher, and with long stringy brown hair rather than red. I turned away and kept walking.

“Look, there’s Annabeth waiting for us,” Chiron said.

And there she was, sitting in front of the last cabin on the left and reading a book. She gave me a critical once over when we reached her.

“Annabeth, I have masters’ archery beginning soon. Would you take Percy from here?” Chiron asked her.

“Yes, sir,” Annabeth said.

“Cabin eleven,” Chiron said, gesturing towards the cabin’s doorway. “Make yourself at home.”

It looked the most like a regular wooden summer camp cabin, and the most worn down. Its brown paint was peeling. It had more than a few kids and teenagers hanging around its common room.

Chiron didn’t enter as the door was too low, but the campers bowed to him respectfully.

“Good luck, Percy,” Chiron said. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

Then he galloped off towards the archery range and leaving me with a bunch of kids sizing me up. I was pretty familiar with how fresh meat got treated.

“Go on,” Annabeth said.

Of course, I tripped going through the door, making a total fool out of myself, and I caught the snickers. Now inside, I could see that on the left was an open door with ‘boys’ written over top and on the right a matching door labeled ‘girls.’ I could see rows of bunkbeds squeezed in, but there were still sleeping bags on the floor like it was a Red Cross evacuation center. 

“Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven,” Annabeth said.

“Regular or undetermined?” someone asked.

“We know for sure he’s not in seven. Not blond enough,” another person pitched in, earning some laughs.

I had no idea what any of that meant.

“Undetermined,” Annabeth answered for me.

Everyone groaned.

A guy who looked a little older than the rest moved to the front of the cabin. “Now, now, guys. That’s what we’re here for. Welcome, Percy. There’s a spot in the corner for you on the boy’s side.”

I squinted up at him. He was tall and muscular with sandy blond hair and wearing a Camp Half-Blood shirt with the sleeves cut off. Aside from the thick white scar that ran from beneath his right eye to his jaw, he looked an awful lot like Apollo.

“You’re not, like, related to Apollo, are you?” I asked.

“He’s not my dad if that’s what you’re asking,” the guy said. “He’s my uncle.”

I nodded as if that explained everything. “Okay, it’s just three kids came up to me to ask about him, and they were all blond like you.”

The guy and Annabeth both sighed like that had happened plenty of times before.

“Yeah, he doesn’t have a trademark on blond hair. And sorry about the kids. They’re not supposed to do that,” he said. “Anyways, I’m Luke. I’m going to be your counselor for now.”

“For now?” I asked.

“Yeah, you’re undetermined,” Luke said. “We don’t know which cabin to put you in so you stay here with us because we take all newcomers and visitors since Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers.”

There wasn’t any thunder like with Zeus’s name.

“How long will I be here?” I asked, trying to ignore the campers that didn’t seem all that pleased to have me there.

“Excellent question,” Luke said. “Until you’re determined.”

“How long will that take?”

The campers laughed.

“There’s a bit of a range,” Luke said, holding up his fingers close together. “If you were my uncle’s kid, you’d have been claimed already, and since you’re clearly someone else’s kid, it could be—,”

“Two weeks,” one kid chimed in.

“Two years,” another said.

“Never,” a third said sourly. He looked almost Luke’s age.

I had to take a second to really process what they were saying. “So you’re saying when my mom said my dad was gone, she didn’t mean dead.”

“Nope,” Luke said. “She meant he left, probably for Olympus.”

I looked around at all the different kids. I could believe gods had kids with humans. There were plenty of myths about that, and Mr. D had proven gods were real, and Apollo’s kids definitely looked like him, but I didn’t look like any of the other campers here, not really. Even accounting for how the gods could have had kids with anyone, I didn’t look like I was related to anyone else like how Luke looked related to his uncle and cousins.

“But how do you know that’s true about me?” I asked. “What if my dad’s just some random guy?”

“You wouldn’t have gotten in,” Luke said. “Regular mortals can’t cross the boundary line. But it’s more than that.”

“Ever get kicked out of a school?” one of the campers asked.

“Or a bunch of them?” another added.

“Get diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD?” Luke asked.

I looked around at them all, not sure how comfortable I felt about a bunch of random kids knowing about my crappy academic record and everything else. “How do you know that?”

“Join the club,” a girl a few years older than me said. “Happens to basically all of us.”

“So what? Just having dyslexia and ADHD gets you sent here?” I asked.

“It’s just one sign,” Annabeth said. “You’re hardwired to read ancient Greek which is why English floats off the page. As for the ADHD, you can’t sit still because of your battle reflexes, and the attention’s because you have better senses than a regular mortal. You see too much. Besides, you survived eating ambrosia and nectar which would have killed a normal kid. Face it. You’re a half-blood.”

“We just don’t know which god’s your parent,” Luke said with a shrug.

“I need to,” I said, gesturing uselessly as I stumbled back out of the cabin.

“Let me show you the bathroom and showers,” Annabeth said, following me out. “They’re this way.”

I didn’t actually need to pee, but I didn’t want to tell her that. I just needed a second to think without like a billion people watching me. They couldn’t be talking about me. I was just a person, not the son of a god. I didn’t have family. It was me and my mom, and not enough relatives to fill a whole cabin like that.

“Take a look at that. A newbie!”

I looked around to see the big girl from the red cabin marching towards us. She had three other girls with her, just as large and meaning looking as her. They were wearing matching camo jackets.

“Clarisse,” Annabeth said, annoyed. “Why don’t you just go polish your spear or something?”

“Sure, Miss Princess,” the girl said with a grin. “So I can run you through with it Friday night.”

“Erre es korakas,” Annabeth retorted which I somehow knew meant ‘go to the crows’ though I was pretty sure it was worse than it sounded translated. “You don’t stand a chance.”

“We’ll pulverize you,” she threatened before nodded towards me. “Who’s this little runt?”

“Percy Jackson,” she answered, “meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares.”

“Like…the war god?” I asked.

“Yeah, got a problem with that?” Clarisse asked.

“No,” I said, trying to get my wits together. “It explains the bad smell.”

She scowled, taking a step towards me. “We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.”

“Percy.”

“Come on,” she said, ignoring my correction entirely. “I’ll show you.”

“Clarisse,” Annabeth said only to get snapped at.

“Stay out of it, Princess,” Clarisse said.

Annabeth looked annoyed, but she didn’t step forward. I didn’t want her to anyways. I was the new kid. I had to make my reputation myself. I did pass the Minotaur horn over to her, though.

I turned to face Clarisse, but she grabbed me by the back of the neck before I could do anything. She started dragging me over to a cinder-block building that had to be the bathroom. I kicked and punched, and I’d been in fights before, but Clarisse had a steel grip. She didn’t seem touched by my flailing at all. She had no trouble dragging me into the girl’s bathroom. There was a line of toilet stalls down one side and showers stalls on the other. It smelled like every other public bathroom I’d ever been in which was a little disappointing if the place was owned by actual gods.

“Like he’s Big Three material,” Clarisse said as she pushed me towards one of the toilet stalls. “Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing he was so stupid looking.”

Clarisse’s friends all laughed with her.

The stall door banged open, and Clarisse shoved my head down towards the toilet bowl. I fell to my knees, wrinkling my nose at the smell of sewage. I braced my hands on the seat. I was looking at the water, determined to make sure that my face wasn’t going to touch any of that.

I felt a sudden tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard rumbling from within the pipes. Clarisse’s grip loosened on my neck. Water shot out of the toilet, right over my head and into Clarisse’s face. I was shoved away, and I fell into the side of the stall as she screamed. More water shot out of the toilet, hitting Clarisse hard enough to knock her to the ground.

She struggled to get away from the spray, and when her friends went to help her, the other toilets began to explode, too. Then the showers turned on as well, spraying all of the girls. They quickly ran from the spray and out of the bathroom.

The tugging in my gut released, and all the fixtures shut off again. The entire bathroom was covered in water. Not even Annabeth was spared. She was standing by the door, dripping wet and looking at me shocked.

I got to my feet and realized that I was in the only dry spot in the place. There weren’t even any water droplets on my clothes.

Annabeth asked, “How did you—?”

“I don’t know,” I said, quickly walking out the door, not wanting to get caught in the girl’s bathroom.

It was too late. There was a group of about four teen girls, giggling behind their hands at Clarisse and her friends. She looked like a drowned rat, but that didn’t stop her from scowling at me.

“You’re dead, new kid,” she spat at me. “You’re dead meat.”

I should have stopped there before I made it worse, but instead I said, “If you don’t want to gargle toilet water again, you should keep your mouth shut.”

The girls behind her laughed harder. Clarisse’s friends caught her arms when she attempted to lunge at me. They turned her back towards their cabin instead. The other group of girls moved aside to let them through.

I caught Annabeth staring at me. “What?”

“I think I want you on my team for capture the flag,” she said, now looking excited in a way I wasn’t sure meant good things for me.

Chapter Text

We had to stop by cabin six for Annabeth to change out of her wet clothes. I stayed all the way outside.

A girl around Luke’s age came out after Annabeth had disappeared, but unlike them she had dark brown hair rather than blond. “Are you the new kid Annabeth’s showing around?”

I nodded. “Percy. Which, uh, goddess is your patron?”

“Athena,” she said with a smile. “Goddess of wisdom, warfare, and handicraft. I’m Darryl, head counselor here. So, you wanna tell me why Annabeth’s all wet?”

“Uh,” I stalled because I really didn’t, not that I knew how to explain what had happened anyways. “There was an accident in the bathroom.”

Darryl didn’t look convinced.

“It was Clarisse’s fault,” I said, fully okay with shoving her under the bus.

Darryl scowled. “Wait here for Annabeth. I’m going to talk to Andrew.”

I watched her as she marched determinedly across the field towards cabin five.

“Ready to go?”

I turned back to see Annabeth rejoining me in a different, dry outfit though her hair was still damp.

“Is it bad that Darryl is going to talk to someone named Andrew?” I asked, gesturing towards her over my shoulder with my thumb.

“You told her about Clarisse?” she asked. Then she sighed. “It’s not a big deal. Darryl yells at him all the time, but nothing ever changes. He really doesn’t deserve to be a head counselor. If we go now, we can avoid the screaming.”

She led me away from the cabins to a metal shop which was uncomfortably warm even standing clear of the door. There was also an arts and crafts room currently occupied by a bunch of satyrs. Then there were the pair of climbing walls that faced each other and shook, threw boulders, sprayed lava, and generally seemed designed to kill whoever tried to climb it.

Last, we swung by the canoe lake. There were a few people out on the water, enjoying the afternoon.

Annabeth pointed, “You see those two swans?”

I followed her finger and eventually spotted a pair of swans on the far side of the lake near the edge of the water. “Yeah?”

“Those are Phoebus’s swans. He rescued them, and they’re supposed to be here to protect us, but they will become attack swans if you bother them so just leave them alone,” she said.

She didn’t need to tell me that. If they were anything like Canadian geese, I wasn’t going anywhere near them.

“Who’s Phoebus?” I asked, pretty sure I’d never heard that name before. Unless it was the name of the blond guy from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame?” I also for some reason knew it meant ‘bright’ the same way I had known what Annabeth was saying to tell off Clarisse.

Annabeth looked at me like I was stupid. “If you don’t want the gods listening in on you for calling their names all the time, you gotta use something else. Phoebus is one of Apollo’s epithets.”

“Isn’t that the thing that goes on a tombstone?”

“No, that’s an epitaph.”

I could see how I’d gotten them confused. “So we’re just supposed to call them something other than their actual names? That seems really confusing. And annoying.”

“You get used to it,” she said. “Unless you like hearing thunder all the time.”

I shook my head then headed down to the dock, figuring I was safe since no one was using it and the swans were on the far side. I’d never gotten close to a lake so clear before so I wanted to check it out. I could see straight to the bottom, and I was surprised to see a pair of teenaged girls down there like that was a normal place to hang out. They looked up and smiled and waved.

I looked around me to check if there was anyone else they might be looking at then waved back. It was a little hard to tell through the water, but it looked like they giggled.

“Don’t encourage them,” Annabeth said, having only come about halfway down the dock. “Naiads are terrible flirts.”

“Naiads,” I said dumbly. Of course. Naiads. Why didn’t I think of them? “I’m good. I’d like to go home now.”

Annabeth frowned, shifting uncomfortably. “Don’t you get it? This is your home now. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us.”

“You mean mentally disturbed kids?”

“No, half-bloods,” she said. “That’s why it’s in the name.”

“Half-god, seriously?” I asked. “There’s no way this is real.”

Except I could feel that sensation, almost a tingling like when you listened to really good music, the one I sometimes got when my mom talked about by dad.

Annabeth shrugged. “They ran around falling in love and having kids with humans in a lot of those old stories. Why would you think they’d stop any time after that? I mean you’ve already seen two gods and their kids.”

“Just Apollo’s,” I said then tried correcting myself. “Phoebus’s?”

She nodded.

“So everyone here’s really half-god?” I asked.

“Yeah, or you can call us demigods if you prefer,” she said.

“Wait, are the cabins by parent not patron?” I asked. “Like Athena’s your mom?”

“Yes, though the other campers usually call her the goddess of wisdom or Promachos,” she said.

‘She who fights in front.’

Yeah, that sounded like an epithet from a summer camp with an armory.

“And my dad’s undetermined,” I said, finally getting what the other campers had been talking about.

“Yeah, nobody knows so you stay in cabin eleven.”

“My mom knew.”

“Maybe not,” she said with a shrug like it didn’t matter. “Gods don’t always reveal their identities.”

“My dad would have. He loved her,” I insisted.

Annabeth shot me a wary look like she didn’t want to have to give me bad news. “Maybe. He could send a sign. That’s the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son.”

“Wait, so those guys back at cabin eleven saying they’re still undetermined, their parents never claimed them?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, not really looking at me. “Gods are busy. They have a lot of kids, and they don’t always…well, sometimes they don’t really care about us. They just ignore us.”

I’d seen kids at Yancy with parents like that. They got sent to boarding schools to be out of sight and out of mind. Gods should be better than that.

“But what about Apollo?” I asked, not caring about any stupid name rules. “He literally helped bring me here. His kids asked me about him.”

Annabeth’s lips twisted. “He’s kinda the exception, not the rule. He’s the god of the protection of youth. It’s like his job to care about us.”

“So what? He got assigned babysitting duties by the other gods?” I asked, feeling kind of angry for him. I wouldn’t want to be the one picking up after all of my relative’s kids, especially if they were like Mr. D.

“Mr. D is the one who got punished with being in charge of the camp,” Annabeth shrugged. “Phoebus shows up when he feels like it.”

I looked around the camp, lingering on the cabins and trying not to think about how cramped cabin eleven was. “I’m just stuck here, now? This is it for the rest of my life?”

It was a way out of having to live with Smelly Gabe, but it was a lot to take in.

“It depends,” Annabeth answered. “Some of the kids only have to stay in the summers. If you’re not really powerful, the monsters might ignore you so you can get by with some training in the summer and live in the real world. For some of us, it’s too dangerous to leave until we’re adults. We’re year-rounders. We attract too many monsters once we hit ten or eleven so you either come here or you get killed.”

“Monsters like the Minotaur?” I asked. “They can’t get in here?”

“Don’t say his name. It makes it easier for him to come back,” she said with a sigh. “But yes, none of them can get in unless they’re intentionally stocked in the woods or someone summons them from inside the camp.”

“Why would you wanna summon a monster?”

“Practice fights. Practical jokes.”

“Jokes?” I asked, wondering who would find setting a Minotaur on someone funny.

“Yeah, point is, the borders are sealed. Mortals don’t even see anything, just a strawberry farm.”

“Are you one of the year-rounders?” I asked. “That’s why you get to be tour guide?”

“Yep,” she said then pulled out a leather necklace from under her t-shirt. It had five clay beads on it of different colors. There was also what looked like a chunky college ring on it. “I’ve been here since I was seven. Every August on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I’ve been here as long as most of the counselors.”

“How’d you end up here so young then?” I asked.

“None of your business,” she said, shoving the necklace back under her shirt.

“Oh,” I said, feeling awkward. “So…could I just walk out of here if I wanted to?”

“You could, but it’d be suicide, and you’d need Mr. D’s and Chiron’s permission. They won’t give you permission until the end of the summer session unless…”

“Unless?”

She looked me over then looked out at the lake again. “You were granted a quest, but that hardly ever happens. The last time…”

I could tell from her tone and the way she nearly grimaced that the last time hadn’t gone well. Then she looked sharply at me.

“You’re from New York, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Do you know what’s happening at the summer solstice?”

I shrugged. “I don’t even know what a summer solstice is.”

“It’s the longest day of the year,” she said.

“Okay, why does that matter?” I asked.

“I just wanted to see if you knew,” she said with a frown. “Something’s gone wrong in Olympus, but it was normal the last time I went there.”

“You’ve been to Olympus?”

“Yeah, some of us year-rounders took a field trip there during the last winter solstice when the gods have their big annual council.”

“How’d you even get to Olympus?”

“Long Island Railroad,” she said, like it was obvious. “Get off at Penn Station, head to the Empire State Building, take the special elevator up to the six hundredth floor.”

As far as I knew, there were only one hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building and nothing above it, but I figured I could keep that to myself.

“The weather got weird after we left which usually means the gods are fighting. I also overheard the satyrs talking about something getting stolen so whatever it was must be pretty important. I bet if it’s not back by the summer solstice, things’ll get messy. I just thought you might know something coming from New York,” she huffed, and then added more quietly to herself, “I’ve got to get a quest. I’m not too young. If they just told me what was happening, I could fix it.”

I didn’t know what she was going to be able to do if something really had been stolen from the gods. How do you find someone who’d accomplished something like that?

Then my stomach growled as I caught the scent of barbecue smoke.

“You should head back to cabin eleven for dinner,” Annabeth said. “You’ll eat with them.”

“Thanks,” I said, heading for the shore. “Good luck with your quest thing or whatever.”

I made my way back to the cabin eleven, and it seemed like there were even more people than before. There was a group of campers a little separated from the rest, and I realized those had to be the actual siblings with their matching sharp noses and arched eyebrows. They were the types of kids that teachers tagged as troublemakers on sight.

“Percy,” Luke said, smiling and emphasizing the features that he shared with his siblings. “Good, you’re back. I found you a sleeping bag and stole you some toiletries from the camp store.”

I couldn’t tell if he was joking about the toiletries being stolen or not. “Thanks.”

“This way,” he said, leading me back on the boys’ side of the cabin to one small area that was clear. He set the sleeping bag and the bundle of toiletries on the ground. “How was the tour? I know it’s kind of a big place.”

I gestured around helplessly. “The attack swans are the most normal things about this place. I don’t belong here. I don’t believe in gods.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “That’s how we all started. Doesn’t really get any easier once you do start believing in them.”

The bitterness in his words surprised me because he seemed like an easy going guy, like he could handle anything thrown this way. He was in charge of the cabin that got all the random kids dumped on them.

“Your dad’s Hermes, right?” I asked. “Is there an epitaph I’m supposed to use for him?”

Luke cracked a smile. “Epithet. You can call him the messenger or the herald since that’s pretty easy to remember. Some people call him Argeïphontes.”

I frowned. It meant ‘slayer of Argus.’ “Who’s Argus?”

Luke laughed out loud. “He’s the head of security here at the camp.”

“People call your dad that in front of him?” I asked, shocked.

“No,” he said. “They don’t call him that. It is one of his epithets, but no one here uses it.”

I was grateful that I’d asked about it rather than trying to use it around someone else. “If he’s the messenger, why’s he got a title like that?”

“Epithet,” Luke corrected again. “And it’s cause his father asked him to get rid of Argus so he could sleep with Io.”

I decided not to tell him I didn’t know who that was either and switched tacks instead. “You ever get to meet your dad?”

It seemed like there was a range on whether you got to meet your parent just like there was with being claimed. Either they were Mr. D, who was forced to be here all the time, Apollo, who showed up often, or you had no idea who they were.

“Once,” Luke said.

I waited a moment to see if he’d continue, but he didn’t. I wondered if it had anything to do with his scar.

“Don’t worry about it,” Luke said. “Most everyone here is good people. We’re all family, right? We take care of each other.”

I noticed that he said most, and I wondered if that was meant to cover people like Clarisse who tried to shove your head in a toilet.

Luke gave me a sympathetic smile like he knew how lost and tired I felt. I sighed, feeling ready to drop even though we needed to go to dinner. Still, I was grateful Luke was hanging around an uncool middle schooler like me longer than a camp counselor needed to. He’d even stolen me some toiletries which was the nicest thing anyone had done for me all day.

Since he was here, I figured I should ask him. “There was this girl, Clarisse, she said something about me being ‘Big Three’ material. Do you know anything about that?”

Luke rolled his eyes so hard he moved his head with it. “I hate prophecies.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

His jaw twitched just underneath his scar. "Let's put it this way. Since my little trip to the Garden of Hesperides went south two years ago, Chiron hasn't let anyone go on any quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the real world. She pestered Chiron so much he told her he already knew her fate. She wasn't going to go on a quest until...someone special showed up at camp."

"Someone special?" I asked. "Like Big Three material?"

"Don't worry about it," he said, waving the thought away. "Annabeth wants every new camper to be the one that'll get her on a quest. Come on, let's get to dinner before we're late."

Then a horn blew in the distance. I knew it was a conch shell even though I'd never heard one before. I was randomly knowing a lot of things I shouldn't. I wasn't sure if that was from being in the camp or from drinking the apple juice that tasted like cookies.

Luke led me back out to the front of the cabin as he called, "Eleven, fall in!"

"Wait, what do I do?" I asked.

"Line up with me," a boy around my age said, leading me to the back of the line of around twenty campers. "We're the newest so we stay at the back."

"Oh, thanks," I said. "I'm Percy."

The boy grinned impishly. "I know. I'm Cam."

"Are you claimed?" I asked as the group started moving. "Is that how you're supposed to ask?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that's fine, and yeah, I'm here permanently. I haven't met Dad yet, but Luke says it takes a lot to get his attention."

"A lot of what?" I asked.

"Glory," he said. "You have to be impressive to get a god's attention. Well, except for Mr. D since he's forced to be here."

I hadn't done anything impressive to get Apollo's attention, just smacked my head into the back of the driver's seat. "He doesn't have kids, does he?"

"Oh, he does," Cam said. “Twins.”

I must have made a face because Cam then said, "It can’t be that bad. At least they've actually met their dad."

I wasn't sure I wanted to meet whoever my father was if he was like Mr. D.

Chapter Text

We followed the other campers up to the pavilion along with everyone from the other cabins. There were also satyrs joining us. The naiads emerged from the lake, and other girls came out of the woods—like straight from the literal trees. I watched one melt out of the side of a maple and run to catch up with the other girls. All together, there were probably one hundred campers, a couple dozen satyrs, and a handful of tree nymphs and naiads each.

Inside the pavilion, large lamps that looked like they were lit with actual flames and not the light bulbs that mimicked the flickering hung from every column. A central fire in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub burned in the center. Each cabin had its own table covered with a white table cloth edged in purple embroidery. Four of the tables were empty, but eleven's was stuffed to the gills. I had to squeeze in next to Cam and my butt was still half off the bench.

I spotted Grover at table twelve with Mr. D, a few other satyrs, and a pair of blond boys just as cherubic as their father minus the signs of alcoholism. Chiron stood to one side as the picnic table was too short for a centaur.

Darryl and Annabeth were sitting at table six with a few other kids. They were the quietest table, and aside from Darryl, they were all blond.

Clarisse and Ares' cabin was at the table behind me. If she was bothered by the toilet hose down, she didn't show it. She was busy guffawing and talking loudly with her siblings.

Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor, and everyone quieted down. He raised his cup and said, "To the gods!"

Everyone else raised their cups, too. "To the gods!"

Then the wood nymphs came forward with platters of food. There were grapes and apples and strawberries and cheese and fresh bread and the barbecue I'd smelled earlier and more.

Cam gestured to my empty goblet. "Tell it what you want, and it'll fill up with it. No alcohol, though."

Cam looked disappointed about that, but I didn't want to touch the stuff if it made you like Smelly Gabe or Mr. D. I dubiously picked up the cup. "Cherry coke?"

The glass filled up like I'd put it under a soda fountain. I considered the possibilities of a magic soda dispensing cup. "Blue cherry cola."

The liquid shifted to a vibrant shade of cobalt. I tried the concoction. Tasted just like cherry cola still. I drank a toast to my mother.

She wasn't gone. Not forever. She was in the Underworld. If it's a real place, then someday...

"Here," Cam said, passing along one of the platters. "Send it up the other side when you're done."

I quickly grabbed brisket from the platter to put on my plate and switched with the girl across from me as she handed me the plate of fruit. It took a while for all the food to get to everyone, and there was plenty of arguing along the way.

"Sorry, what's your name?" I asked the girl across from me.

"Jessa," she said. "You're Percy, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Is it, like, short for Percival?"

I grimaced. I got asked that a lot. "No, it’s Perseus, but I go by Percy."

Cam and Jessa looked at me like I was crazy.

"You got lucky enough to get named after an actual hero, and you don't use it?" Jessa asked then gestured to Mr. D's twins. "They got named Castor and Pollux, and all they're known for is being a constellation, not slaying Medusa."

"I got named Cameron. It's not even cool," Cam complained. "No one wants to be named Cameron."

"Hey, guys," Luke said before whistling for us, two notes like a cuckoo's call. "You're holding everyone up."

Cam and Jessa scrambled to their feet with their plates.

"What are we doing?" I asked.

"Bring your food," Cam said.

I picked up my plate and followed them towards the brazier, watching as people scraped food off their plates and into the fire.

"They're offerings for the gods," Jessa explained. "They like the smell of it burning."

"You're joking," I said.

"Nah, not at all. It's really rude if you don't do it," Cam said, looking very serious. "It's also the best way to pray and actually get it heard."

"Wait, Phoebus helped you get to camp, right?" Jessa asked. "You definitely have to thank him then."

"What happens if I don't?" I asked.

"You wanna be sunburned all summer no matter how much sunscreen you put on?" Cam asked.

I did not and shook my head.

"And use his actual name when you pray so he'll really hear you and didn't think you skipped out," Jessa told me before stepping up for her turn at the fire.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes and she pushed a roll off the edge of her plate. Cam did the same.

I didn't know what to say when I stepped up, and I didn't want to look stupid asking. It's not like mom and I went to church. If she knew about any of this stuff, that was probably why. People said 'dear God' when they prayed right? Like they were writing a letter but ending with amen instead of sincerely? Or was that a Christian thing?

I took a breath, made sure the a slice of brisket actually landed in the flames and not on the floor, then closed my eyes to pray. Dear Father, whoever you are, tell me. Please.

Then I opened my eyes again, wondering what Apollo would want from my plate. What was sun god food? I knocked strawberries into the fire as my best guess. I closed my eyes and thought Dear Apollo, thank you for bringing me and Grover to camp.

Just as I was going to walk away, I heard a voice in my head. It sounded a lot like the college kid.

You may call me dear Apollo if I am indeed dear to you, dear Perseus.

I felt my face go hot, and it wasn't because of the flames. The way Apollo had said 'dear Perseus' made it sound super rude and not polite like it was supposed to be.

I was just trying to do it like in letters I insisted to him, wondering if I needed to shove a few more strawberries into the flames for it to get to him.

Apollo laughed, and he had what my mom would've called a singer's laugh which as far as I could tell was her nice way of saying it was loud.

I turned back to Cam and Jessa who had been nice enough to wait for me. "Are gods allowed to make fun of your prayers?"

"What did you say to him?" Jessa asked.

"What did he say?" Cam asked instead.

"I was trying to be polite," I said. "Like dear so and so, like in a letter."

Cam snorted before slapping a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. I shot him a look for that.

"Guys," Luke said, "Quit holding up the line."

I quickly walked away from the brazier, but my face still felt like it was burning. It was only when I sat down that I realized I hadn’t told Apollo I preferred to be called Percy. How do you correct a god on what to call you?

"It's not that bad," Jessa said, but she didn’t sound totally convinced. "Maybe you won't get sunburned."

"What am I supposed to say then?" I asked.

Cam shrugged before stuffing a roll in his mouth. "I just say father."

"You don't even say anything else?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"I just ask to be claimed pretty please with a cherry on top," Jessa said. "I think it works better when we have cherries."

Seeing as she was still in cabin eleven, I wasn't sure that it did.

Cabin seven went up last. Everyone else started eating, though.

"We're not gonna wait for them?" I asked because my mom always made me wait for everyone to be seated though that always meant we had to wait for Smelly Gabe.

Cam shook his head.

“They always take forever,” Jessa said, shooting a look over to the line of Apollo’s kids.

“He talks to all of them?” I asked.

“Probably,” Cam said through his mouthful.

I got my confirmation later. One of the younger kids towards the back of the line, maybe even one of the ones that had come up to me in the morning, burst out with, “But Dad!”

There wasn’t any audible response, but the kid sulked back to table seven. He crossed his arms and glared at his food rather than eating. It earned him some snickers, especially from eleven and five. I kept my head down and decided to focus on my own food.

After we finished eating, Chiron pounded his hoof.

Mr. D pushed himself to his feet. “Yes, yes, hello to all you brats. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five currently holds the laurels.”

Loud cheers erupted from the Ares table.

“I couldn’t care less or whatever, but congratulations,” Mr. D said, waving off the cheers. “Also, we have a new camper today, Peter Johnson.”

Chiron leaned down towards him to speak quietly to him.

“Er, Percy Jackson,” Mr. D corrected himself. “Hurrah and so on. Now run along to your little campfire, go on.”

Everyone cheered, and I quickly finished off the last of my food. The youngest Apollo kids sprinted from the pavilion first, and one of the older campers chased after them so I assumed he was the head counselor.

“Come on,” Cam said, patting my shoulder to try and mush me along. “We gotta get the good seats.”

“What are the good seats?” I asked, following him.

“You’ll see,” Jessa said.

They wove easily through the other campers to get to the amphitheater, and I had a little trouble keeping up with them. Then they sprinted up the stairs all the way to the top, and I followed them to seats right at the center. We weren’t really all that high up, but we were high enough to get a view of everything.

The guy I thought was the Apollo head counselor now had a guitar, and two girls around his age and another boy a little younger than him had joined him down on the stage. I could make out other blond heads sitting in the front row, and I figured some of those had to be the rest of the siblings, including the kids that had come up to me.

“Alright,” the guy with the guitar said. He already looked a lot like Apollo from a distance, but he sounded a little like him, too. “We’re going to leave time for requests, but you know the rules.”

Several people booed, a lot of them from Ares’ cabin.

“What are the rules?” I asked.

“Has to be kid friendly, and we’re not allowed to pick anything from Hercules,” Cam answered.

“Hercules?” I asked, confused.

“The Disney movie,” Jessa said. “Duh.”

“Oh, because it got the myths wrong?” I asked.

“Bingo,” Cam said. “You know they made my dad blue in that movie, right?”

“They did?” I asked then I thought about it. “They really did make him blue.”

“I think it’s a stupid rule,” Jessa said, crossing her arms. “The songs didn’t do anything wrong. ‘Won’t Say I’m in Love’ is my favorite, and it’s not even about the gods.”

My favorite part of the movie was Hades, but it was probably for the best if the actual Hades wasn’t a Disney villain.

The guy on stage started strumming the guitar, and he and his siblings led everyone through the songs. I recognized the melody on some of them, but all the lyrics had been switched out for things I’d never heard before about the gods and Greek heroes. A few of the songs weren’t even in English, and some were half English and half not.

“Alright,” the guitarist said as another song ended. “Who’s got requests?”

A hand shot up. “Play ‘Freebird!’”

The guitarist scowled. “Anyone not named Andrew.”

“Hey,” the guy shouted, turning his hand to show his offense. “You asked for requests.”

“You ask that every time,” the guitarist said. “I don’t have my electric guitar, and it’s not even a sing along song. The whole point of the song is to take a break from singing. Pick a different song!”

“‘Welcome to the Jungle!’” the same guy shouted.

The guitarist looked very tired, but that didn’t seem to stop anyone else from shouting out rock songs.

One of the girls on stage leaned over towards him, and he shook his head.

She stepped away, and the guitarist shouted, “Fine, we’re doing ‘Welcome to the Jungle.’ Next time you ask for rock, pick a song with acoustic guitar.”

The Ares’ cabin cheered.

“Does this happen a lot?” I asked.

“Almost every night,” Cam said with a grin.

For all of the guitarist’s complaining, he sounded pretty good to me. Ares’ cabin was definitely the loudest when it came to singing that song though.

Other campers made requests after that. There was one Disney song, but a lot were pop songs. I could at least sing along to these ones. The younger kids started filtering out first, their older siblings walking them to the cabins before coming back. I caught Luke turning around to check up on us. Cam always gave him a thumbs up, and Luke left us alone. It was kinda cool that he just let us be.

Eventually though, a conch horn sounded again, and everyone got up. I followed Cam and Jessa back to cabin eleven. There was a rush on the bathrooms with everyone trying to get ready for bed. I nearly dropped my stolen-by-Luke toothbrush down the sink when someone accidentally bumped into me.

“You’re next to me, right?” Cam asked through a yawn as we walked back to the cabin.

“I think so,” I said.

“Cool,” he said, picking his way through the guy’s side of the cabin to the back corner.

Our sleeping bags were next to each other, and I felt exhausted the second I lay down.

“G’night,” Cam told me as he curled up in his bag.

“Night,” I said.

Someone, probably Luke, turned out the lights. I reached out blindly for the shoebox Grover had given me. I ran my fingers along the Minotaur’s horn inside. I thought about my mom, how she smiled, the bedtime stories she would read me, how she would have told me to not let the bed bugs bite. I would see her again.

I closed my eyes, falling asleep instantly.

Chapter Text

I hadn’t ever been to a summer camp before, but I figured this one was a lot like what those fancy art schools were like where you did classes in the morning and art in the afternoon except instead of artists, we were demigods learning to kill monsters.  In the morning, I was in ancient Greek 101 with the other newer campers, getting taught by Darryl. Almost everyone was from cabin eleven so I could sit next to Cam and Jessa. The only kids who weren’t from cabin eleven were the three Apollo kids who’d come up to me the first day, Sammy, Will, and Aislinn.

Ancient Greek wasn’t all that hard to read, or at least, it wasn’t any harder than English. It also helped that class wasn’t anything like real school. Darryl had dyslexia, too. She gave us extra time, and something about how she taught made it seem like it was no pressure, that it wasn’t horrible if we got something wrong. We’d just get it right the next time.

A kid who had arrived for the first time a few days before I did and was a couple of years younger than me started crying in the middle of class, and I don’t think it was because he was sad. Darryl gently guided outside so he could calm down in privacy. The rest of us did our work and acted like nothing had happened.

In the afternoon, we stayed in the same group and rotated through different outdoor activities to figure out what we were good at. Chiron taught us our first archery lesson, and I never wanted to do it again. I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn at ten paces, and literally everyone was better at it than me. It’s not like they were all be Apollo’s kids.

Next came running. I wasn’t the slowest kid there, but that’s because they were, like, eight years old. The wood nymph teaching us left me in the dust.

“Don’t worry,” she told me. “We have lots of practice running from lovesick satyrs and gods.”

I didn’t know how to tell her that being slower than a tree was always going to be a little humiliating.

Wrestling was even worse. They paired us up by weight, and I got flattened every round no matter how hard I tried. I shoved my partner, Kyle, off of me, and that got me sent to the sidelines to cool off.

The only thing I was really good at was canoeing, but that wasn’t the kind of heroic prowess people expected from the kid who had killed the Minotaur.

I could tell the older campers and the counselors were all watching me to try and figure out who my dad was. I wanted to know, too, but I didn’t have any obvious tells. I wasn’t strong like Ares’s kids. I hadn’t been claimed and definitely wasn’t blond so I couldn’t be Apollo’s even before you got to the atrocious archery. I was clumsy with metalworking unlike any Hephaestus kid. I couldn’t work with plants like Dionysus’s children either.

“You could be a Hermes’ kid,” Luke suggested when Cam had asked for his opinion. “Jack of all trades, master of none kind of thing.”

“Yeah, but he’s never beat me in a race,” Cam said.

Which was a very good point because he was freakishly fast like all the Hermes kids.

Luke frowned then shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe a minor god?”

The only problem with that was, what minor god’s kid had ever slain a Minotaur without training?

Then came the class I was most excited for: sword fighting.

Not only was it sword fighting, but Luke taught it. Cam and I immediately started trying to fight each other as soon as we got our weapons.

“Knock it off before you lop off a hand,” Luke said, catching us right away. “This is serious. You know better, Cam.”

Cam huffed, but he lowered his sword.

“Alright, we’re gonna practice the moves then you can go at it with the dummies,” Luke told the whole group. “No sparring or fighting each other until I say so, got it?”

Our class nodded or told him, “yes.”

“Pay attention,” Luke said. “This could save your life one day.”

Luke walked us through the basic strikes, having us repeat it while he went around correcting our forms. He made a lot of us shift our feet so we’d be more balanced and able to get out of the way if we had to. I was relieved to be one of the earlier kids allowed to start hacking at the dummies.

The only problem was that the blade felt weird in my hand.

“Luke?” I asked when he was walking around giving us tips.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Can I get a different sword?”

“What’s wrong with that one?”

I shrugged. “It feels weird.”

“You can try, but you may not find something that totally fits you,” Luke warned me. “You’re twelve. You can get something custom from one of the Hephaestus kids, but there’s not much point in doing it while you’re still growing. Just find one that suits you best.”

“Okay,” I nodded, running over to pick up a different sword.

Then five minutes later, I did it again. And again five minutes after that.

“Here, try this one,” Luke said when I stepped back from the dummy a fourth time. “Your form’s not that bad, but none of these swords are doing you any favors. Maybe this one will work.”

“Okay,” I said, swapping mine for the new practice sword he’d brought me.

I barely took two swings at the dummy before he said, “Nope, not it either. I’m sorry, man. You might just have to wait to get your own for something that really works for you.”

I tried not to get disappointed. “Well, I can do that soon right?”

“Try in a year or two,” he suggested then turned to the whole group, “Alright, we’re going to get paired up. I see you goofing off, I’m going to make you fight with brooms for the rest of class. Percy, you’re with me.”

“Hey, I wanted to spar with him,” Cam complained.

“Next time,” Luke offered. “It’s his first class. You’ve got more experience.”

“I’ve got more experience?” Cam asked. “You’re the best swordsman we’ve got. I’m way easier to fight than you.”

Luke grinned at me, but I looked at Cam, trying to ask him to save me with just my eyes. He only gave me a salute before pairing up with Jessa.

“It’ll be fun,” Luke said as he settled into his stance.

It was not.

Everyone else got to swing their swords around and try their best, but Luke kept drilling me. He would demonstrate an attack on, landing a hit, then tell me to repeat it on him. Except when I did it on him, he knew the defense for it. On and on it went while I put all my effort in trying to land a hit only for him to turn around and easily hit me with the flat of his blade.

I was coated in sweat when he called for a break. Everyone swarmed the water cooler. I watched Luke pour ice cold water onto his head which looked so good I copied him. I shook out my wet hair, already feeling better without the sweat sticking to me. I felt ready to go again.

“Okay, everyone circle up,” Luke called. “If Percy doesn’t mind, I want to give you a little demo.”

I nodded to him because I didn’t see a way out of it. I shared a look with Cam, and he gave me a thumbs up. I scowled back at him which made him grin.

“Alright, I’m going to show you a disarming technique,” Luke said, turning towards me. “First, you bind the blade.”

I offered my sword out for him to lay his blade against mine.

“Cut, turn your blade to his flat, your strong against his weak,” he said, slowly turning his blade and pressing the lower third of his blade against the upper third of mine. “Now I have leverage against him, I control his blade. Got it?”

There are nods all around.

“Then I cross my hand, making sure to always keep my blade between me and his blade, and maintain control,” he said, moving his hand from the right side of his body to his left, keeping his blade against mine, and gently pushing my sword up. “From here, I can move in, hook him with the pommel at the end of the handle, pull his sword free.”

He moved in towards me, his blade against mine until the last moment. His sword came free, he hooked his pommel around mine, then pulled down on it. It was in slow motion, but at full speed, he could have wrenched my sword free.

“Alright, full speed, everyone ready?” he asked.

I nodded then raised my blade again. He bound my sword, moved in, hooked his pommel over mine, then pulled, and my sword clattered onto the ground.

“Good,” he said then turned to the group. “Now everyone gets to practice on each other. Your turn Percy.”

“Okay,” I said, excited to try.

He offered me his blade, and in slow motion I pulled off the move, though without enough strength to actually pull his sword from his hand.

“Good job,” Luke said with a grin. “Want to see if you can do it for real? We’ll just keep sparring until someone pulls it off.”

“Yeah, let’s do it,” I said.

Luke moved first, thrusting forward. I raised my blade to meet him and kept him in a bind. I could sense his movement, his pressure along the blade and used it to respond, tilting my blade to defend against him or else retreating. Luke was good though. He didn’t waste movement and leave openings, and my retreats didn’t make him overextend even as he continued to exert pressure on me.

He was backing me up. I could feel the strain in my wrist. I wasn’t going to be able to keep it up against him for long. Why not try it?

I quickly moved in, pressing my edge against his flat, bringing my hand across, then striking my wrist against his and pulling down as hard as I could. His sword ripped free, and I held my blade an inch from his neck for a moment before he reared back.

The whole arena suddenly went quiet.

I lowered my blade. “Sorry.”

Luke blinked at me. Then he grinned. “Sorry? By the gods, Percy, you shouldn’t be sorry. Do it again.”

I didn’t really want to, my wrist felt tired, but Luke picked up his weapon and held it out towards me. I offered mine out as well. Luke disarmed me in moments.

“Beginner’s luck?” Cam asked.

Luke looked me over before wiping sweat off his face. “Maybe. We might need to get you a proper sword sooner than in a couple of years.”

“Is sword fighting one of the gods’s talents?” I asked.

Luke tilted his head. “Not really. There’s obviously the god of war, but my father is patron of athletes, and Pheobus is like the ideal athletic youth. All of them are pretty good at fighting.”

I sighed. The sword thing didn’t help me out any either.

On Friday, I got a chance to talk with Grover, hanging out by the lake well away from the swans.

“How’d things go with Mr. D?” I asked him.

He paled. “Fine, totally great.”

“So your career’s okay?”

“Chiron told you I wanted a searcher’s license?” he asked.

“No,” I said because I had no idea what that was, and that didn’t seem like the right time to ask. “Just that you had big plans and needed credit for the keeper’s assignment. So, did you get it?”

He sighed, lowering his gaze to the water. “Mr. D said I hadn’t succeeded or failed, so I’m still with you. If you got a quest, and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he’d consider the job complete.”

“That’s not so bad, right?”

“Ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest, and then even if you did, why would you want to bring me?”

“Of course I’d want to bring you,” I insisted.

He shook his head.

“Come on, you’d be great,” I said. “You got me here.”

“Phoebus got you here. I was unconscious,” he mumbled, picking listlessly at the grass.

I sighed, figuring I better change topics. “Can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“Who’s the Big Three?” I asked. It’d been bothering me since I’d asked Luke, but he hadn’t really answered. I wasn’t sure if anyone else would tell me, but I knew Grover would. “It doesn’t have something to do with the empty cabins does it? There’s four of them, though.”

Grover shook his head. “One is for Artemis who’s sworn to remain a virgin so no kids, and another for Hera who’s the goddess of marriage so no demigod kids. No, the Big Three are the three sons of Kronos.”

Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.

“But there’s not a cabin for the Lord of the Underworld,” I said since I didn’t want to risk saying Hades’ name. If Zeus could cause thunder, I didn’t want to know what he would do.

“No, he’s not an Olympian so he doesn’t get a cabin.”

“But,” I hesitated, wondering what names I was supposed to use for Zeus and Poseidon. “The king of the gods and the sea god both had a bazillion kids in the stories. Why are their cabins empty?”

Grover winced. “They made a pact after World War II to stop having affairs with mortal women since their children were just two powerful. Their kids were on both sides of both World Wars. They all swore it on the River Styx.”

“That’s the most serious oath you can make, right?”

Grover nodded.

“And they really kept their word?” I asked because from the stories it really seemed like Zeus couldn’t keep it in his pants.

Grover shook his head. “The king broke his word seventeen years ago. He got off easy because he’s immortal, but he brought down a terrible fate on Thalia, his daughter.”

“But that’s not fair. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

Grover glanced at me out of the corner of his eye then looked away again. “Percy, children of the Big Three aren’t like other half-bloods. They have a stronger aura, stronger scent that attracts monsters. When the Lord of the Underworld found out the oath was broken, he wasn’t happy about it. He let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. Her satyr keeper tried to help get her here along with a couple other half-bloods she’d picked up, but there was nothing he could do. They got all the way to the top of that hill.”

He pointed across the valley to the tall pine tree where I’d fought the Minotaur.

“They were about to be overrun with monsters when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she fought them off. She was wounded and tired, and she didn’t want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr wanted to help, but he also had a duty to the other two half-bloods so Thalia made her final stand alone at the top of that hill. Zeus took pity on her as she was dying and turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit helps protect the borders of the valley. That’s why it’s called Half-Blood Hill.”

“What about Phoebus?” I asked. “He helped me get here. Why didn’t he help her?”

“Did Pheobus kill Pasiphaë’s son?” Grover asked. It sounded rhetorical.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “His arrows didn’t do anything. I had to do it.”

“It was the same for Thalia. The king decreed that gods aren’t supposed to interfere with mortals, especially not demigods. He watches Phoebus pretty closely.”

Grover still looked a little haunted though.

“What is it?” I asked. “Did something else happen?”

He looked around as if anyone was near enough to overhear. Then he said quietly, “Phoebus was furious. He razed all the monsters afterwards.”

“Razed?” I asked.

“He used his divine form,” he said. “Anything that looks at them except for another god when they’re in that form gets incinerated.”

“Guess he wasn’t supposed to do that either,” I said.

“Probably not.”

I looked over at the pine tree. A girl my age had stood alone against an army of monsters to save three people. Apollo had destroyed them in an instant afterwards. Fighting one monster seemed cheap against that, and I hadn’t even been able to save my mother.

“Grover,” I said. “Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?”

“A couple times.”

“Have they ever brought anybody back?”

“No, never, Percy, you cannot be seriously thinking—,”

“No,” I assured him, but I was lying. “I was just wondering. So…does every demigod get assigned a satyr?”

Grover studied me for a moment. I don’t think I’d convinced him, but he still answered me, “Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. If we find one with an especially strong aura, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them since they could cause huge problems.”

“And you found me. Did you think I was something special?”

“I didn’t,” Grover said a little too quickly. “I don’t mean it like that. If you were, you’d never be allowed on a quest, and I’d never get my license. You’re probably a child of Hermes or a minor god like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don’t worry, okay?”

I think he was saying that more for himself than for me.

Chapter Text

That night after dinner, no one headed to the amphitheater. Instead, everyone stayed at their tables to cheer as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran in with a giant gray silk banner decorated with an owl over an olive tree. On the opposite side, Clarisse and her two sisters ran in with a similar banner but in red with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

"Are those the flags?" I asked Cam over the noise. 

He nodded rather than trying to shout.

"Do those two cabins always have them?"

He shook his head. When the cheering had quieted some, he added, "Not always, but usually."

"If another cabin captures the flag, what do you do? Repaint the flag?"

Cam grinned. "Don't worry about that."

"Who's side are we on?"

"Probably cabin six's since Luke's the one that does all the talking," he said.

"The blue team," Chiron began announcing and everyone quieted down, "will be led by cabin six and be joined by cabins seven and eleven.”

"Told you," Cam whispered to me.

"The red team will be led by cabin five and be joined by cabins four, nine, ten, and twelve.”

I checked out the competition. I already knew that the dozen Ares kids were big, strong, and ruthless. I could still feel Clarisse's steel grip on the back of my neck. Mr. D's cabin was the smallest with just his twins, Castor and Pollux. I wasn’t sure how athletic they were, but they were a few years older than me which was an advantage. I figured Demeter kids would be on defense. They had a connection to plants so the forest would basically be home territory, but I didn't think they could outrun anybody, especially not a Hermes kid. There were only four Hephaestus kids, but they were as big if not bigger than the Ares kids, and they worked in the metal shop lifting heavy things all day. Aphrodite was an unknown for me, but their head counselor definitely looked like she wouldn’t hesitate to stab you.

"Let me reiterate the rules," Chiron continued. "The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magical items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but not bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and medic. Arm yourselves!"

He waved his hand and equipment appeared on the tables. There were helmets, and cuirass, and greaves, swords, spears, and metal coated ox-hide shields.

"We're really using this?" I asked. "I thought we weren't allowed to kill each other."

"It's all practice," Cam told me, reaching for what was in front of him.

"But monsters don't wear armor," I said. Unless we were counting tighty whities now.

"Some do," Jessa said. "You don't want to be caught out when one shows up with a sword."

I looked at the equipment. "Uh."

"Cam, you got it?" Luke asked, appearing behind us.

"Got it," he promised, already putting on his cuirass.

"Jessa?"

"I'm good," she said, sitting down to put on her greaves.

"Alright, let me help you out then, Percy," Luke said. "This should all fit you."

He helped me put on the cuirass then greaves and wear the sword belt comfortably so the sheath sat on my left hip. I could put on the helmet with its blue plume myself, and he showed me how to carry the shield. I really hoped no one expected me to run as the thing was basically the same size as me and felt like it weighed as much, too.

"All set," Luke said, putting his hands on my shoulders and giving me a reassuring shake. "Time for me to go talk strategy."

Luke went to the front of the group with who were probably the head counselors from Apollo and Athena, but it was hard to tell with the helmets. They kinda looked like something out of a Hollywood war movie as they led us towards the southern half of the woods. One of the three made a motion and then four or five of the other campers spread out across the group.

Annabeth joined me, Cam, and Jessa.

"What's the plan?" Cam asked.

"Jessa's on defense, left side of the flag facing the creek," Annabeth said.

"Oh, good, no running," Jessa said.

"Cam and Percy, you guys are boarder patrol on the right side facing the creek," Annabeth said.

"What? Us?" Cam asked. "Percy doesn't even know anything."

"Hey," I complained even though it was true.

"Don't worry. You're not trying to hold the line. If anyone shows up, we want you to retreat," Annabeth said.

"Really?" Cam asked skeptically.

Annabeth nodded. "Promachos always has a plan. Besides, Lysander is going to be running between everyone on boarder patrol so if you need help, call out for him."

Then she moved on to the next group to give them instructions.

"Which one's Lysander?" I asked.

"Cabin seven head counselor," Jessa answered. "He's the one that plays guitar for sing alongs."

"They all play guitar," Cam said, rolling his eyes even though it was barely visible under the helmet.

"Not for sing alongs."

When we reached the forest's edge, Jessa waved goodbye to us before jogging off to her assigned position.

"This way," Cam said. He led me in the other direction only stopping when we reached the creek.

"And we just stay here?" I asked.

"Yep," he said. "We're kinda out of the danger zone here."

"Really?" I asked, a little annoyed even though I'd barely started to learn to use the sword. "Then why'd we bother even wearing all this?"

Cam shrugged. "Just in case, I guess."

"This is dumb," I said, kicking a pebble into the creek.

A conch horn blew in the distance. I heard whoops and yells, but I couldn't see anything until one of the Apollo kids a couple years older than me gave us a nod before he leaped gracefully over the creek.

Cam made an annoyed sound. "It sucks they always stick us on the edges. We're good enough to get in on the action, right?"

"Right," I agreed.

We stayed where we were. We listened to all the action happening somewhere else.

Then Cam straightened up. "Did you hear that?"

"No," I said, though my free hand was going to my sword.

Five Ares campers rushed out of the brush on the other side of the creek, and I pulled out my sword.

"Cream the punk!" Clarisse yelled.

"Run!" Cam yelled, turning a full 180 and sprinting into the forest.

I stumbled back a step but there was no way I could keep up even if I hadn't had a heavy shield. I braced myself as the Ares kids stormed across the water, Clarisse with a red tipped spear and the other four with swords. I sidestepped the first swing, but I wasn't fighting the Minotaur anymore.

The other campers quickly surrounded me. Clarisse struck first, and I defended with my shield. A painful zing ran across my body, and my arm felt numb. The air smelled like it'd been burnt.

Electricity. Her spear was electrified. I tried to fall back, but her brother was behind me. He shoved me so I fell flat onto my shield. They could have kicked at me, but they were too busy laughing.

"Give him a haircut," Clarisse jeered. "Grab him."

I rolled up onto my feet. Clarisse thrust her spear towards me, and I directed it away from my body, but the electricity ran up my sword arm.

"Oh, look at that, I'm so scared," Clarisse teased.

"The flag's that way," I told her, trying to get her interested in something else.

"Yeah, but here's the thing. We don't care about the flag," one of her sisters said, she'd been there at the bathroom. "We care about getting payback for making our cabin look stupid."

"You do that all by yourselves," I said rather than keeping my mouth shut for once.

Two of them advanced to strike, and I retreated towards the creek. I tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse struck me in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing the cuirass, I'd have been skewered. The shock from the spear was painful enough.

I hissed in pain as one of her brother's slashed me across my sword arm. It made me feel dizzy to see my own blood. "No maiming."

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

He stepped forward, I raised my shield, and he shoved me back into the creek. They laughed at me. I figured I was in trouble as soon as they stopped finding it funny.

The water was cold despite it being summer. It shocked me awake, brought a little clarity after being cut. I got to my feet as the Ares campers stepped into the water.

The first I disarmed with the move I'd learned from Luke. His blade fell into the water. When the second advanced, I shoved the edge of my shield into her to knock her down. The third aimed his blade for my injured sword arm. I parried, pushing his arm away to give me the space to advance and slash across his chest. The cuirass protected him, but the swordbelt lying across it split apart and fell into the water. The fourth shuffled her feet, but didn't attack.

Clarisse thrust her spear at me, the tip crackling as it passed. I raised my shield, faking an opening. Clarisse aimed right for it. I caught the spear between my shield arm and my body, thankful the shaft wasn't electrified. I brought my sword down with all my might once, twice before it broke apart. The tip went silent, and I let it fall into the river.

Clarisse shrieked. "You idiot! You corpse breath worm!"

"Stand down!"

I froze instantly. The voice had been deep and authoritative and furious. It definitely sounded like he could easily smack me into the dirt if he wanted to. It was like what a god should sound like instead of Mr. D’s whining or Apollo’s teasing.

Clarisse must have thought the same because she backed up a step as did her siblings. They all held up their hands, palms out.

"What is going on here?"

I slowly turned around. It wasn't a god. It was the Apollo cabin's head counselor looking like the next best thing to a god in his full armor. Cam was next to him, panting and looking pale under his helmet.

Before any of us could start answering, there was yelling and screaming. Behind Lysander, Luke was running towards the creek a few yards upstream with the Ares banner held high. He was flanked by the older Hermes and Apollo campers protecting his route.

"It was a trick!" Clarisse shouted, and I could hear her moving in the water.

"Don't move," Lysander commanded.

She went still.

Luke finished his journey to the creek. Our side exploded into cheers. The banner shifted from red to silver with a caduceus. A conch horn blew, and people started lifting Luke up onto their shoulders in celebration. 

"Not bad, hero."

I nearly startled out of my skin. It wasn't Lysander, but Annabeth's voice from next to me in the creek.

"Where'd you even learn to fight like that?" she asked.

There was a shimmer, and she appeared, pulling a Yankees baseball cap away from her head.

"You set me up!" I snapped. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me!"

"Everyone out of the water," Lysander ordered, and he only turned half away to call out, "Chiron, Darryl, Andrew, and Luke, we have a situation."

His voice cut through the cheering even though he wasn't yelling. Murmurs started up as people lowered Luke back to the ground. I climbed out of the water as the counselors and Chiron made their way towards us. I felt exhausted as I stepped onto dry land. My arms went numb again, and I nearly fell over. Lysander caught me by the arm, keeping me upright.

"What's going on?" Darryl asked, arriving first.

"Cam, Percy?" Luke asked, moving around Darryl to approach us. "What happened?"

Cam immediately glued himself to Luke's side, and Luke set a protective hand on his helmet.

"What's the issue?" Chiron asked, standing over all of us.

"What did you shitheads do now?" Andrew asked, walking through the water and splashing everywhere.

"Did you know that Clarisse had it out for the new kid?" Lysander asked Darryl.

"Yeah, he told me about it himself. That's why I stationed him in the back," Darryl said with a look of confusion before it cleared. "Annabeth, I swear on our mother, you did not put a kid who's barely been here a week on boarder patrol."

"What?" Annabeth asked. "It was a good plan. He had Cam with him, and I was here the whole time to step in."

"Are you serious?" she asked. "Cam's a son of the messenger. He can run to safety even with a shield. You're so lucky Percy’s okay."

"He's not that okay," Lysander said. "I'm keeping him upright. What injuries do you have?”

"Cut on my sword arm," I told him.

He shifted me around so I was more in the moonlight. He set down his shield then held up my arm and gently pushed my shirtsleeve up. "What cut?"

"What?" I asked, looking down at my own arm. At most there was a long white scratch, not a cut. "But there was, I swear."

"There was, I saw it," Annabeth said.

Lysander carefully traced over the scratch with his fingertip, but it didn't hurt. "If you were my brother and had healed yourself, you wouldn’t still have this."

There was a deep canine growl. I gasped as Lysander tightened his grip on my arm and straightened up. The counselors all spun towards the sound.

"Stand ready!" Chiron shouted.

Annabeth and Luke drew their swords, Darryl readied her spear, but Lysander didn't have a weapon.

On the rocks above us, a black hound the size of rhino with blood red eyes prepared to pounce.

It was looking right at me.

The dog leaped forward. Lysander tried to pull me out of the way, but it landed on both of us. Its claws dug through my armor like it was made of cardboard. There was a thwacking sound then arrows sprouted from the dog's neck. It whined before collapsing on top of us. Lysander shoved its dead weight off us, and I had to bite my lip to not make any noise as its claws were ripped away.

“You okay, kid?” Lysander asked as he helped me sit up.

I did my best to nod though I really didn’t feel okay at all.

“That’s a hellhound from the fields of punishment,” Annabeth said. “They’re not supposed to…”

“Someone summoned it from inside the camp,” Chiron said grimly.

“It’s Percy’s fault! He summoned it,” Clarisse yelled, pointing at me.

“Shut up!” Andrew snapped at her. “He’s barely been here a week. I bet he doesn’t even know Greek yet. How’s he supposed to have summoned something like a hellhound?”

Clarisse’s mouth snapped shut.

The hound began to melt away into shadows and seep into the ground.

Lysander pressed his fingers into my neck. “We need to get him to the infirmary.”

“No, we just need to get him into the water,” Annabeth said.

“I’m fine,” I insisted even as Lysander had to pull me up onto my feet.

“Not the time, Annabeth,” Darryl said.

“No, look,” Annabeth said, taking my other arm and pulling me away from Lysander.

I didn’t know what she was trying to prove, but if it got me to the infirmary quicker, I’d do it. I stepped back into the creek. I immediately felt better. I thought it was just a placebo or whatever except this time I could feel the tears in my skin from the hounds claw’s closing up.

I heard gasps behind me, and I turned to face everyone. “I don’t understand…”

None of them were looking at me, though. They were all staring at something over my head.

“Percy,” Annabeth said, and pointed up. “Uh.”

I looked up to see a glowing green trident directly over my head before it faded away.

“It is determined,” Chiron said gravely.

“What, my father?” I asked.

Chiron nodded. “Poseidon, Earthshaker, Storm-bringer, Father of Horses.”

I looked around at all the campers staring at me. None of them seemed all that impressed or happy. If anything, they looked scared.

Chapter Text

Luke moved first. He offered a hand out to me. I took it, and he helped me out of the water. I felt exhausted again.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s head back.”

I looked over my shoulder, searching for Cam. I caught his eye, but he quickly looked away. I faced forward. Luke kept a hold on my arm as he led me out of the forest. More than a few times, I stumbled in the dark, and he steadied me.

“Normally, you’d move out of the cabin right away, but I’m sure no one has a problem with making an exception for tonight,” Luke said. “We’ll get you all packed up and moved out in the morning.”

I nodded.

“Hey, it’s gonna be fine,” he said. “You’re gonna get your own cabin. That’s cool, right?”

I didn’t say anything.

“You can still come to me for anything, okay?” Luke said. “You’re going to be head counselor of your cabin because you’re the only camper, but you don’t have to handle everything. You can come to me, got it?”

I nodded again.

“It’s alright, kid. You know who your dad is now—,”

“Is Hades gonna kill me?” I asked.

“Hey,” Luke said warningly, his grip becoming too tight. “Don’t say his name. Why would you even ask that?”

“He killed the last Big Three kid, didn’t he? Thalia?”

“She’s not dead,” he said, suddenly angry.

“She’s not here either, is she?” I asked.

Luke said nothing for a moment, but I could hear him breathing in the dark between the edge of the forest and the cabins. He slowly loosened his grip on my arm. “No, she isn’t.”

We were quiet the rest of the way back. Luke had to help me out of the armor as I didn’t know how to take it off and my arms were basically limp noodles. The cuirass was ruined, but the rest had survived okay. I did my best to try and stay awake for when Cam got back, but I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I felt groggy and like I woke up too soon the next morning. I saw Cam getting out of his sleeping bag and said, “Hey.”

My voice was rough and weak from the night before, but I knew he heard me because he paused. Then he hurried to grab his toiletries and leave before I had a chance to catch up to him. I got a few looks from the other guys, but they were pretty quick to clear out, too.

I got a wide berth in the bathroom. No one came close to knocking into me and making me drop my toothbrush.

I went up with cabin eleven to the pavilion, but when we got there, Luke led me to one of the empty tables.

He slapped his hand down on the top. “This one’s yours now, okay?”

“Yeah, got it,” I said. My voice wasn’t much better.

It was a sunny morning in summer, but it was cold sitting alone. I didn’t have anyone next to me to help block the wind coming off the sea. I finished eating first. I went back to the cabin to start packing before anyone else followed.

I was nearly finished zipping up my bag when there was a knock. I turned around to find Luke standing in the doorway to the boy’s side.

“You got everything?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “Chiron’s waiting for you outside.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I got up with everything I had; a Minotaur horn, a few spare clothes, and the toiletries Luke had stolen for me.

Luke walked me to the door, and Chiron was there waiting for me as promised.

“This way,” Chiron said as if I hadn’t already been shown cabin three.

The gray stone still comforted me, but the cabin was cool inside. There weren’t other people’s things spread everywhere. The boy’s side only had three beds. Seemed like my father never had all that many demigod children even before the pact. Or maybe they’d taken beds out.

“Percy,” Chiron called after I’d set my things down on one of the beds.

I returned to the doorway.

“I understand you have no activities this morning as it is Saturday, but I believe that Darryl would like to speak to you about your schedule and other responsibilities as a head counselor,” he said.

“Oh,” I said. Me and responsibilities didn’t really get along that well. “What do I need to do?”

“There’s a rec room in the Big House,” he said. “She’ll meet you there after she’s finished her breakfast.”

“Okay,” I said.

“I’ll leave you to get settled in,” he said before trotting back up to the pavilion. I could see Luke heading back as well.

I looked over my shoulder towards my bed with my few belongings on it. I headed to the Big House. I hadn’t been back there since I arrived, but it didn’t take me long to find a room with a ping pong table in it. I sat down on one of the couches to wait.

Darryl arrived a few minutes later, but Lysander was with her too. She had a big binder under her arm and went straight for the coffee machine in the corner.

"Seriously?" Lysander asked her. "Did you not just get coffee from the goblet?"

"Yeah," she said, setting up the machine. "Some of us don't get solar power from our dads."

"That's not really how it works but whatever," he said as he pulled a few folding chairs up to the ping pong table and sat down like it was a normal table.

Darryl got her cup and took a big breath in. "Ah, sweet, sweet nectar of the gods."

"You've had actual nectar," he said. "I know we've all got ADHD, but that can still mess up your sleep schedule."

Darryl waved him off. "Whatever, Mom. I just need it to get through this scheduling nightmare."

"Um," I said awkwardly so at least they’d know I was there.

"It's not you," Darryl said. "Chiron's a good teacher, not so good an administrator. Mr. D's obviously useless, do not tell him I said that even if it’s true. Come sit over here."

I got up from the couch to sit next to Lysander and Darryl took a seat on my other side. She laid out the binder and started pulling out different pages.

"Rules and responsibilities as a head counselor, some won't apply to you because you don't have any siblings here," she said, pushing several sheets of paper with a lot of text towards me. "We'll go over it verbally at the end because I know it's a lot to read."

I nodded as the letters were already jumbling. I was not getting through that with any sort of speed.

"The harder part is scheduling, especially the chores," she said, pulling out charts. "Most cabins have a few kids, not just one. Maybe we just pair you up with Castor and Pollux for chores."

"Aren't they with cabin nine?" Lysander asked.

"Right, actually all of them together that would be seven," she said. "That's a good number, right?"

Lysander nodded.

"Yeah, sure," I said as I'd rather work in a group than having to get chores done all on my own.

She started writing on the chart in blue pen. When she passed it over to me, it took me a second to read '+ Percy' added to some of the time slots.

"The more difficult part is the activities," she said, looking at a different chart. "You're in group A with all the first and second years so you can learn the ropes for both Greek and all the activities."

"Problem is, most first and second years are in cabin eleven if they're not my siblings," Lysander said.

"I know," I said. Cam and the three Apollo kids were the only ones in my group that were claimed.

"And normally, kids have older siblings to help them out, too," he said.

I scowled. I knew what he wasn't saying. He'd never even been inside cabin eleven. "I can handle myself."

"You mean like with Clarisse?" Darryl asked before taking a sip of her coffee. "You got so lucky, kid. Annabeth thought you were a son of the king. If he really had been your father, you'd still be in the infirmary right now. Also, if she doesn’t apologize to you before the end of today for that stunt, you tell me about it.”

"I didn't ever have siblings before," I said. "I don't need them now. I’m fine."

"Percy," Lysander said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "No man is an island. Even the gods do not reign alone. We're family, let us help. You're not gonna get a reward for making your life more difficult than it has to be."

I wanted to tell him no, but I'd barely found my footing here before the ground had shifted under me again. Lysander's hand was warm and comforting on my shoulder, and I hadn't had anything like that since my mom shattered into glitter.

"I was gonna offer having you pair up with the group B and C kids from our cabin for the afternoon activities," Darryl said, "but Annabeth kinda throws a wrench in that so I asked Lysander to help out."

"But I'm so bad at archery," I blurted out.

Lysander laughed, and it sounded a lot like Apollo's. "We don't just do archery. My father has many domains so each of us is our own unique hodgepodge. I’m not even that good at it to tell you the truth.”

Darryl snorted. “You can say that again.”

"Rude," Lysander told her before turning back to me. "Anyways, you can take the weekend to decide, alright? But just think, if you join up, you also get to do the fun stuff. We've even got Castor and Pollux for Shakespeare nights."

He said it like it was a huge treat, like getting a bag full of candy.

"Shakespeare?" I asked. That was several centuries off from Homer and a completely different language.

"No, don't get him started," Darryl said.

"Of course," Lysander said, ignoring her. "He is called the Bard for a reason."

"His mom studies Shakespeare so she named both of her kids after characters," Darryl told me.

"Wait, Lysander is a Shakespeare character?" I asked. "I thought it was Greek."

"It is Greek because Lysander is Greek," he said. "Do you not know Midsummer?"

I tried not to wince. I didn't particularly like having it pointed out to me that I wasn't exactly reading on grade level and hadn't read stuff people expected me to.

Lysander, however, didn't tease or question me. He grinned and said, "Lucky you. You'll get the children of the gods of poetry and theater to put it on for your first time. I'm so jealous."

"Ego much?" Darryl asked. "Other people can act you know."

"Yeah, but they're not at camp now, are they?"

"We're off track," she said, shoving the schedule towards me. "Even if you do decide to pair up with cabin seven, you can just do it temporarily if you want, and we also try to have the cabins get in some activities that are focused on their talents so you don’t have to be with them all the time."

"What does that mean for me?" I asked. "I do extra canoeing?"

Darryl shared a look with Lysander.

"We're not sure," she admitted. "It’s not like you’ve had a bunch of siblings come through for us to tell. We've got canoeing and swimming, but I don't know if you need something else."

"I think we should get you with the horses," Lysander said. "There's probably something there with the whole father of horses thing."

"Emmeline, the head counselor for cabin ten, is the best rider we have," Darryl said. "We can pair you up for some lessons with her."

"Okay," I said slowly. "So I'm with nine and twelve for chores, but I'll be with cabins seven or ten for afternoon activities?"

"Yeah, and group A still for learning Greek with me in the mornings," Darryl said.

"You will be the youngest in the group for afternoon activities if you do this," Lysander warned me. "But I don't think anyone should give you too much trouble. They'll all be claimed like you are."

"I think we should do it," I said.

I felt bad kind of abandoning cabin eleven, but Cam hadn't even talked to me even though he knew he was claimed. I hoped Luke wouldn't be offended or anything. It's not like I wouldn't still be able to talk to him just because I paired up with the other cabins.

"Alright, now I just have to make it work," Darryl said, pulling the sheets back and looking through the binder.

"Why don't we go over the rules while she does that," Lysander said, pulling the papers out from underneath the chore schedule. "Okay, it's not on here but rule number one is don't let anybody die including yourself."

I couldn't help smiling.

"Moving on," Lysander said.

There were some rules about how to act as a counselor to younger siblings, but most were universally applicable like how not to set the cabin on fire. It didn't seem like it would be that easy to do in cabin three, but I figured I probably shouldn't test it. I also learned a lot about how to get access to the arena or amphitheater for my cabin if I needed it, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen.

"And that's that," Lysander said when he finished. "You're gonna keep all this, but if you need any help, ask me or Darryl or Luke or really any of the head counselors."

"Except for Andrew," Darryl cut in.

"Except for Andrew," Lysander agreed.

"Is all of cabin five that bad?" I asked.

"No, Clarisse is a bit of a standout after last night, but I dare you to find any cabin where someone hasn't pulled something," Darryl said.

"We just like giving Andrew grief," Lysander said. “He deserves it.”

"Okay," I said skeptically.

"Here we go," Darryl said, giving me a new chart where everything was written in pen. "An activities schedule just for you.”

"Thanks," I said, grateful she had nice handwriting which made it easier to read. "What's on Sunday nights?"

"Counselor's meeting," she said. "I'd have let you get out of it, but then there would be no way for you to get the information so you might as well come."

"Oh," I said, suddenly nervous at having to be like behaved and appropriate in front of all the older counselors.

"You'll be fine," Lysander said. "Sometimes we actually have to deal with things, but mostly it’s casual."

"No one's going to expect you to do much since you're just representing yourself," Darryl said. "You only need to show up."

"Okay, sure, I can do that," I said, though honestly sometimes the ADHD made even that doubtful.

"It's right after dinner," she said. "One of us will remind you."

"Good," I said, trying not to seem too relieved.

"Alright, go, be free," Lysander said. "Enjoy your Saturday."

"Don't lose your papers," Darryl said.

"I won't," I promised as I gathered them up.

I went back to my cabin and stuffed the papers into the small chest of drawers at my bedside. Then I didn't know what to do. I hadn't really had plans for the day, but everything was kind of ruined with finding out I was Poseidon's son if cabin eleven was going to keep acting like they had that morning.

I flopped back on the bed, wondering if I could get away with sleeping until Sunday evening.

Chapter Text

Getting the apology from Annabeth was a little awkward.

“I’m sorry for setting you up as a distraction for cabin five,” she said, arms crossed. “But it did work, and you didn’t get hurt, and the hellhound wasn’t my fault.”

“I did get hurt,” I told her. “Just because I healed up doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt when I got cut or electrocuted.”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Sorry.”

“Just don’t do it again, otherwise saying you’re sorry really doesn’t matter,” I said, walking off.

I still had to eat lunch and dinner alone. I tried to catch Cam’s or Jessa’s eyes, wave to them or something, but neither of them looked at me. They didn’t sit near me either for sing along. I was alone up in what counted for a corner in a round amphitheater.

I saw Lysander kneel down to talk to his youngest siblings between songs. Then they came running up the stairs to my row.

“Hi, Percy,” Sammy said with a grin, coming to sit next to me, Will and Aislinn right behind her.

“Hi,” I said. It wasn’t really cool to hang out with elementary school kids, but I’d pretty thoroughly lost that battle already. Besides, they were just doing what their brother told them.

They were all enthusiastic about singing. Every one of them also sounded like the best kids in any of my school’s choirs.

“You’re not singing,” Aislinn complained to me when the song ended.

“How would you know?” I asked her because there were two people between us.

“We’re sitting right next to you,” Will said.

I was losing an argument to ten year olds. “I don’t know the songs.”

“We can teach you,” Sammy said excitedly, Will and Aislinn nodding along.

I tried to back away. “No, singing’s not really my thing.”

“Come on,” Aislinn whined. “Everyone should get to sing.”

I really didn’t want to, but they all looked at me with puppy dog eyes during the next song so I did my best to mumble along to it. I wanted the ground to swallow me whole having three great singers all listening carefully to my horrible rendition.

“It was good,” Sammy told me, patting me on the arm. “You just need practice.”

“Huh?” I asked, not expecting to get praised for my half hearted attempt.

“And breath support,” Will added.

The two girls nodded like he’d said something really insightful.

“I know how to breathe,” I said.

They all looked at me like I’d said something dumb.

“We’ll work on it,” Sammy said again.

They stuck with me through the rest of the songs, but at the end of the night, they ran back down to Lysander, and I went to cabin three alone. But it was kinda nice that the three kids waved to me at breakfast as they went to their own table. I decided to hang out by the beach to avoid everyone avoiding me. I took off my shoes and socks, and it was nice to wade into the water, but it also made me miss my mother. I’d only ever gone to the beach before with her.

Darryl arrived at my table as I was finishing dinner that evening. “Meeting time,” she said as she rapped her knuckles on the table.

“I’m coming,” I said, following after her.

We were the first to arrive at the rec room, and Darryl folded up the ping pong table, and I helped push it up against the wall. Lysander and Andrew arrived together. Lysander gave me a smile before returning to his argument with Andrew. Luke showed up next.

“Did I miss anything?” he asked me before dropping down onto one of the couches.

I shook my head.

Luke patted the seat cushion next to him, and I sat down.

“Welcome to the meeting,” Luke said with a smile.

One of Mr. D’s kids showed up, and I genuinely had no idea which one.

“Nice not to be the youngest anymore,” he said as he sat down on my other side.

“You’re welcome,” I told him, and he laughed.

The head counselor for Aphrodite, Emmeline, came in next. Now that I knew she was going to be teaching me how to ride horses, I didn’t want to look stupid. She was still intimidating outside of the Greek armor with her high cheekbones and her black hair tied up in a ballerina bun and knee high boots. She gave our entire couch a look like we smelled bad or something. She sat down with Darryl on the other side of the room.

The girl after her wasn’t anything like Emmeline since she was the only girl in the Hephaestus cabin with her brown hair buzzed short and dressed in overalls like she was on call for the forge. She went straight for the only reclining armchair and pulled the lever to lean back and kick her feet up.

The last to arrive was the Demeter head counselor who dressed like a hippie outside of capture the flag and had her hair braided down to her butt. She gave our couch a smile before going to sit with Emmeline and Darryl.

“We all good?” Darryl asked the group.

“Yeah, obviously,” Andrew said, and Darryl shot him an annoyed look. He motioned for her to go on.

“Anyways, first order of business is how do we not have a repeat of Friday night,” Darryl said.

“Which part?” Castor or maybe Pollux asked. “The hellhound part or ambushing the new kid part?”

“Both parts,” Darryl said.

“I’m already on Clarisse’s case,” Andrew said. “Everyone involved’s got no dessert, no combat classes, extra chores, and they’re not allowed near baby shark over there.”

I shot him a look for calling me baby shark, but he didn’t notice.

“Only thing left to do is smack ‘em on the head,” Andrew concluded.

“A concussion will really help their decision making,” Emmeline said dryly.

“I’m not serious,” he said. “But I can’t babysit their sorry behinds every second of the day. I got five other kids to look after.”

“That should be enough for now. We can escalate if needed,” Darryl said. “Annabeth’s been restricted as well. No more privileges, and she doesn’t get to know the capture the flag plans anymore. Any questions?”

Everyone looked at me. I quickly shook my head.

Pollux or maybe Castor raised his hand. “That’s great and all, but what’s the plan for the hellhound? What if we’re not all right there next time?”

No one said anything for a moment. Several people looked over to Darryl.

“Chiron’s agreed to look into trying to tighten the magical security, but it’s not going to be easy,” Darryl said slowly. “It was designed to allow summons.”

“You seriously think it was a summon?” the Demeter counselor asked. “We have monsters in the forest.”

“It was definitely a summon,” Lysander said. “It was way stronger than anything we keep stocked. I’m not even sure we’d use it for a practice fight. That thing ripped me to shreds, bad enough for scars.”

I frowned. He’d said there’d be no mark if his brother had healed my cut. Shouldn’t he have no scars like me?

“Chicks dig scars,” Andrew said.

“Super helpful, Andrew,” Emmeline said.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a grin.

Emmeline rolled her eyes.

“Shouldn’t we find the summoner then?” the Hephaestus counselor asked. “If we can’t shut down summons, that’s our only option.”

“Everyone was there, everyone’s a suspect,” Darryl said. “It won’t be easy to get through that list.”

“Sure it is,” she said. “Count out everyone in group A, they don’t know enough Greek, and I don’t think it was summoned during the game. It was probably done beforehand.”

“Why do you think that?” Luke asked. “It attacked after we got the flag.”

“It was a pretty short game for our standards, no time for people to get tired or bored. Most people pair up, everyone is keeping their eye out for enemy players, and everyone’s armed and in the forest. Too risky to just whip out a summon,” she said with a shrug. “It’s really likely someone would have noticed.”

“Why’d it wait so long then?” Darryl asked. “Percy was only with Cam for a good while. There was plenty of opportunity beforehand.”

“Too much commotion probably,” the Demeter counselor said. “Besides, aren’t they mostly pack hunters? It could have been nervous on its own.”

“But it attacked when we were all there, and it’s not like Percy and Lysander were off on their own. They were in the middle of all of us,” Andrew said. “It should have been scared off by the noise if it was actually nervous.”

“It must have been provoked,” Emmeline said.

“By what? Baby shark?” he asked. “I bet he’d never even seen one before.”

“I don’t know,” Emmeline admitted. “But something had to have prompted it. It’s too far outside their normal behavior.”

“If we’re saying someone provoked it, it’d have to be one of the older campers,” Lysander said. “Someone in group B who’s never been on a quest and come across a hellhound before is not going to know how to do that. If it had been one of them, they may not have known about that, considered the plan failed and tried something else. Someone would have been attacked on their own or in a small group when it was quiet, not right after the celebrations.”

“Don’t look at me,” Andrew said, holding up a hand. “I don’t fuck with that magic shit, you know that.”

“Andrew,” Darryl scolded.

“What?” he asked.

“Language,” she said, tilting her head towards me.

“He’s fine, I’m sure he’s heard worse,” he said.

I had. I lived in New York and with Smelly Gabe. He didn’t exactly worry about his language if he lost a poker game.

“You seriously think it’s one of us?” the Demeter counselor asked. “It’s basically just us who have gone on quests and come back to camp instead of getting a real job or whatever.”

“And Bea,” Lysander said.

“It’s not fucking Bea,” Andrew said.

“Okay, just ‘cause you have a crush on her doesn’t make her innocent,” the Hephaestus counselor said. “She did actually fight hellhounds on her quest.”

“I will kick your ass,” Lysander said, turning to Andrew.

“Shut up, nerd,” Andrew said heatedly. “You’re not in charge of her, and you couldn’t kick my ass if you wanted to.”

“Oh, gods, gross,” Emmeline said, shaking her head. “I really thought Bea had better taste than that.”

“Fuck you, I’m a great catch,” Andrew said.

“Are you really dating my sister?” Lysander asked.

“Mind your own business,” he snapped.

“This really isn’t relevant unless you’re each other’s alibis or something,” Darryl said.

“I wish,” Andrew grumbled, crossing his arms.

“Dude, I am sitting right next to you,” Lysander complained.

I very quietly asked Luke, “Aren’t Phoebus and the god of war brothers? Doesn’t that make them cousins?”

“Half cousins, I think,” Luke answered quietly. “It doesn’t really count on the godly side, can’t result in inbreeding like it does for normal mortals. Besides, cousins isn’t the worst this family’s done.”

Zeus and Hera were full siblings, and they were married. Half cousins maybe weren’t that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Castor or maybe Pollux raised his hand again. “Not that Andrew’s love life isn’t fascinating, hellhound, what are we doing about that? I’m not hearing any solutions for the not getting mauled part.”

“Option one,” Darryl said loudly before Andrew could say something. “We find out who did it and make sure they’re appropriately punished, won’t do it again, etcetera. Option two, we fix the magical security but that’s super unlikely. Option three, everyone stays out of the forest so no capture the flag, no trail riding, no running, nothing.”

A round of complaints went up.

“We’ll have a literal mutiny on our hands.”

“They’re going to sneak in if we ban it.”

“We have to find out who did it either way.”

If they banned the forest and stopped capture the flag, a lot of people were going to blame me for it. I didn’t really need that on top of everything else. Maybe someone would summon something worse then.

“Okay, okay,” Darryl said, raising her hands. “If we’ve agreed that we’ve narrowed down suspects to just those who have been on quests, maybe we ban only those people from the forest. If they want to summon something else, they’ll have to do it where they’re more likely to be caught and more people will be around to fight them. It’s also fewer people to try and keep out of the forest.”

There were several groans, but no one argued.

“It’d be easier to narrow down who it was if we knew whether the target was Lysander or Percy,” the Hephaestus counselor said. “Out of everyone there, it only attacked the two of you.”

Everyone went quiet again.

“Why would it be Percy?” Lysander asked. “He’s been here less than a week. The only reason I can think of for anyone to have an issue with him is whatever happened with Clarisse which she obviously didn’t use a summon for or for being the son of the sea god, but no one knew that until afterwards. You’ve all known me longer so if someone has a grudge strong enough to summon a hellhound, it’d be against me.”

“Yeah, dude, we’re all so jealous of your guitar skills,” Andrew said. “Darryl’s little sister already tried to set the kid up, and it would’ve worked if they hadn’t all been in the creek. Maybe his face just pisses people off.”

“And nobody here’s ever had any daddy or mommy issues,” Lysander said.

“Fuck you,” Pollux or maybe Castor said, sitting forward on the couch. “My dad’s the only one actually here daily so don’t go acting like Phoebus is so great ‘cause he claims his kids immediately or whatever.”

“Only ‘cause he got grounded by the big sky daddy himself,” Andrew sneered. “He’d be drunk as a skunk anywhere else if he could be.”

“Maybe it’s not one of us who did it because if it was, it would have definitely attacked Andrew instead,” the Hephaestus counselor said.

“Fuck off, Helga, nobody asked you.”

She flipped him off, not looking that bothered.

“Alright,” Darryl said loudly. “We’re not being productive anymore. We have a solution for the moment. We’re not going to go around accusing each other like this. I’m gonna bring everything we’ve discussed to Chiron, and he can keep an eye on us.”

“Great,” Andrew huffed. “Like he doesn’t play favorites.”

“What, you want Mr. D to act as the impartial observer?” the Demeter counselor asked.

“Nope, I’m good,” he said, slumping back in his seat.

“Okay, other news, since Percy’s on his own, we’ve added him to cabins nine and twelve for chores and seven and ten for afternoon activities,” Darryl said. “Any questions?”

“Why’s he with us?” Emmeline asked.

“The whole father of horses thing,” Darryl answered.

“That makes sense,” she said.

Andrew raised his hand. “Why’s he not with us?”

“Do you not remember what just happened with Clarisse?” Darryl asked.

“Yes, that’s why I’m saying he should get extra combat training with us,” he said. “She doesn’t have to be there for that. We can send her to the horses.”

“No,” Emmeline said sternly.

“Hey, I’m still teaching him to use a sword,” Luke said. “I am, right?”

“Yes, but just when cabin seven is scheduled for sword fighting,” Darryl answered.

“Okay, but a sword isn’t enough,” Andrew argued. “Full offense Castellan, you might be good with a sword, but you’re dogshit with wrestling and you’re barely passable with a spear, and you don’t like using shields. You’re gonna give him bad habits.”

“Why do I need to know wrestling?” I asked because who was going to pick wrestling over a sword? I’d had to use the horn to actually kill the Minotaur anyways. 

I was completely ignored, however, as Luke said, “I do not have bad habits.”

“Oh yeah?” Andrew challenged. “Then how come you’re the only one sitting here with a scar?”

Luke leaped to his feet. “I don’t remember you fighting a dragon on your quest.”

“Doesn’t fucking matter,” Andrew said, opening up his arms in a ‘come at me, bro’ sort of gesture. “I still would have put my shield up.”

“Alright, sit down,” Darryl ordered when Luke took a step forward. “Why don’t we call it a night, and you two cool off?”

“Fine by me,” Andrew said, grinning at Luke.

“Screw you,” Luke said before storming out of the room.

“Welcome to the counselors' club,” Castor or maybe Pollux said to me as everyone else started getting up.

“Is it always this bad?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said. “Only when shit goes down.”

I sighed. Seemed like nothing was ever going to go easy for me.

Chapter Text

I still had Greek in the morning with group A. Darryl offered me a smile, and the three Apollo kids waved to me as they went to their seats. No one else acknowledged me. I could feel eyes on me all morning, but every time I looked up to catch whoever was staring at me, they were all focused on their work. I tried to talk to Cam and Jessa during the breaks. Jessa asked to go to the bathroom, and Cam turned to talk loudly to Kyle who had beat me in wrestling.

I gave up and dropped back into my seat. I folded my arms on the desk and put my head down.

I felt a light touch on my back. I looked up to see Darryl giving me a worried frown. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," I told her.

I didn't think she believed me because she continued to frown, but she only said, "Okay. Don't forget you can ask me if you have any questions or need any help."

"I know," I told her, and she let me be.

I survived the morning, and eating lunch alone was a kind of relief.

That afternoon, I had my first activity with cabin seven. Sammy, Will, and Aislinn all weren't there, just the older kids, which sucked because we were doing archery.

"Please, don't make me do this," I begged when Lysander handed over a recurve bow and a quiver of arrows after he'd made sure I knew everyone's name.

"You're fine," he assured me, sounding completely confident. "We know you're not dad's kid. And if you're not fine, we'll dump water on you and try again."

"Don’t do that,” I complained.

"If it worked for you with a sword against cabin five, why not a bow?" he asked. "If we write it down, it's science."

"No, it isn't," I said.

"Yeah, Lysander, you gotta have a hypothesis," Lee, the second oldest boy in the group, said.

"Well, I hypothesize water will work on any weapon," Lysander said.

"No, I think it needs to be like when water is applied to Percy, he will gain a level in proficiency with any weapon he’s currently wielding," Rosalind, Lysander's full younger sister, said.

"Yes, exactly," Lysander said. "Thank you, Rosie."

Rosalind had assured me only Lysander was allowed to call her that.

"I didn't agree to human experimentation," I said.

"Good thing it's not human experimentation then," Lee said with a grin. "It's demigod experimentation."

"It's okay," Bea said to me, also grinning. "You're a very cute lab rat."

I could see why she was dating Andrew.

It was hard to stay mad, though. None of it was really mean spirited, and they all knew what they were doing when it came to archery so Lysander gave me one on one attention. He helped me with my stance, my draw, my release, basically everything. I wasn't hitting bullseyes, but I was at least hitting the targets more often than not by the end.

"Don't know what you were worried about," Lysander said as he patted me on the shoulder when we wrapped up. "It'll get easier as you grow. Archery takes a lot of upper body strength. Keep practicing and grow with it, and you should be fine."

I nodded. It was kind of nice to be told I wasn't completely horrible at it. It wasn't like he was lying and saying I would be brilliant or anything like that. Just that I could do it.

I put away the practice bow and the quiver back in the storage unit in the entrance, and Lysander ruffled my hair as he passed me.

"Hey!"

He only chuckled and did it again. I swatted at his hand, but he pulled back before I could get him.

Then every one of his siblings did it to me on their way out.

"Hey, stop it," I snapped at them, and putting a hand over my head. I could feel that they'd turned my hair into a fluffy mess.

"It's for good luck," Lee said.

"No, it isn't," I said because now I'd have to try and fix it and my mom was better at it and she wasn't here.

I was pretty mad about it all the way back to the cabins until Sammy, Will, and Aislinn came running across the grounds. Their older siblings rubbed every one of their heads the same as they'd done to me. Poor Will was the only one with hair anywhere close to mine in texture, and he looked like a little blond puffball after. He didn't seem to care at all, excitedly telling Lysander everything they'd done that afternoon along with his sisters.

I decided maybe the hair ruffling wasn't that bad.

After activities came chores, and I briefly wondered if I'd done something to Darryl when I read cabins nine and twelve were stuck cleaning the bathrooms on the schedule. Except they’d made this schedule before before I'd even got here and this was still better than having to clean them totally alone. I went to meet my doom.

"Oh, good, you didn't run and make me have to chase you down," Helga said when she spotted me making my way over to the group.

"Tactical error on your part," Castor or maybe Pollux said.

One of the Hephaestus boys shook his head. "No, she'll track you even into the guy's bathroom and drag you out with your pants down. You don't want her chasing you."

"Alright," Helga said, ignoring her brother. "Start grabbing supplies. Eugene and Holton you'll be with me on the girl's side. Beckendorf, you're with the numskulls and Percy."

"Hey," both twins complained at the same time.

"Percy, here's the steps so you don't accidentally fumigate yourself," Helga said before going through the order of operations for cleaning the whole bathroom. "Got it? Do not forget the rinsing."

"Got it," I said, hoping one of the other three would help me out if needed.

I followed them into the boys' bathroom. We started with the showers like Helga instructed.

"Hey, Percy, you have, like, control over water, right?" Pollux or maybe Castor said.

"No, do not start suggesting that," Beckendorf said. "If he breaks the pipes, we gotta fix it. Do not try anything."

I nodded quickly. Beckendorf didn't look all that much older than me, but he was already a head taller. I had a feeling the spraying toilet trick I’d used on Clarisse would not work as well on him.

"Okay, stupid question," I said. "Did your parents really name you Beckendorf?"

"They named me Charles," he said. "But I go by Beckendorf."

"Yeah, sounds good," I said because I was not going to argue with him.

“Let me guess,” Castor or maybe Pollux said. “You don’t know which of us is which.”

“Or which one of us attended to meeting last night,” the other said.

I reluctantly admitted, “I thought it’d be rude to ask.”

“I’m Castor, and this is Pollux,” one of them said.

I narrowed my eyes at them. “You’re not lying, are you?”

“No, it’s kind of annoying to get mixed up,” he said. “I’ve got a scar here, that’s how you know it’s me.”

I squinted and could make out a faint scar over his eyebrow where he was pointing.

“Trike accident,” Pollux said then laughed.

“Shut up,” Castor said. “You’re the idiot who split his chin three times.”

“Three times?” I asked.

“Yep,” Pollux said proudly, lifting his chin and revealing three white scars on the underside.

“Cool,” I said.

“Can you please just clean the showers?” Beckendorf said with a hint of irritation.

“On it,” Castor said, and both twins went back to work.

I started cleaning the stall in front of me, trying to repeat the order the cleaning was supposed to go in to myself so I wouldn’t forget. After the showers were the sinks then the toilets which were honestly unspeakably filthy, and the floor was last. Then we carted all the supplies back outside.

“All done?” Helga asked.

“Yep,” Castor said. “Spic and span.”

She peaked inside then turned back to us. “Looks good. Make sure you wash your hands before you go to dinner.”

The conch horn sounded. We all rushed to wash our hands. I saw Helga going to put the supplies away for us and called, “Thanks.”

“Uh huh,” she said, waving us off.

We made our way towards the pavilion.

“Hey, if you want, one—,” Castor started.

“Or both,” Pollux added.

“—of us could sit with you,” Castor finished.

“Don’t you want to sit with your dad?” I asked.

“Uh, not really,” Pollux said.

“I know we’re lucky we get to see him more than everyone else,” Castor said.

“But it’s super lame to sit with your dad at summer camp,” Pollux said.

“And it doesn’t help that most people don’t like him,” Castor said.

I wasn’t sure if I should say that I didn’t really like him either. “Uh, sure, if you want.”

“Cool,” Castor said.

I took my seat at table three. Castor and Pollux went to table twelve, picked up their plates and goblets, exchanged a few words with Mr. D, then came and joined me. I caught Mr. D glaring at me like he wanted to turn me into a grape just so he could squish all my juices out.

“Uh, I don’t think your dad is super happy,” I told the twins.

“He’ll live,” Pollux said.

Castor turned around to give his dad a wave. Mr. D smiled at him, but once he’d looked away, Mr. D went back to glaring at me.

“We’re so not going to get away with doing this every night,” Castor said.

“Not at all,” Pollux said then told his goblet, “Diet coke.”

“Seriously?” I asked him.

“I got indoctrinated. Mom hates it,” he said with a sigh. “She keeps telling me about all the cavities I’m going to get.”

“What do you drink?” Castor asked.

“Blue cherry cola,” I said, my cup filling up.

“Blue? Why blue?” Pollux asked.

I tapped the edge of the cup. I hadn’t really ever been asked before. My mom had been the one to make me all the blue food so I’d never had it in school. I wasn’t sure how much to explain. “It’s for my mom.”

“Oh,” Pollux said.

We all went quiet, and it was pretty awkward.

Castor elbowed Pollux in the side.

“Ow,” Pollux complained.

Castor gave him a pointed look.

“Well, I didn’t know,” he complained.

Castor just kept giving him the look.

Pollux turned to me. “Sorry for asking. I didn’t mean to get into something personal.”

“It’s fine,” I told them.

Thankfully the nymphs came with the food so we didn’t have to keep talking. We grabbed our food quickly since now I went up first as tables one and two were empty. I was getting used to tossing something off my plate and only thinking Poseidon.

Castor and Pollux made their offerings together then turned to their father and waved at him. Mr. D sighed, motioning for them to go back to table three.

“Is it weird doing the offering thing when he’s right there?” I asked as we sat back down.

“I have no idea,” Castor said.

“He’s always been here so we’ve just always done it with him watching,” Pollux said.

“I guess that makes sense,” I said.

“Hey, Lysander said you wanted to see Midsummer, right?” Castor asked.

“Yeah,” I said. Lysander was excited about it so there had to be something there.

“How well do you know it?” Pollux asked.

“Not that well,” I said.

“You know your brother’s in it, right?” Castor asked.

“What?” I asked. “What brother?”

“Theseus,” Pollux said. “He’s one of the characters. Starts off with him talking to Hippolyta about their engagement.”

“Oh,” I said because I had no idea about any of that. “I only know about the Mino—I mean, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s the big story aside from his ship,” Castor said. “But he had like four wives or something.”

“He also abandoned dad’s wife on an island so there’s that,” Pollux said.

“What?” I asked dumbly.

“Ariadne,” Castor said. “She gave Theseus the thread to get through the labyrinth, and then they sailed off with some other people and just kind of left her on an island they stopped at and then dad found her.”

“That’s just,” I trailed off for a moment, “so weird.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda hard to go from this is just a story to that actually happened to somebody I know,” Pollux said.

“Anyways,” Castor said. “Shakespeare doesn’t like one to one do any of the old stories so it’s not that bad.”

“Also, is it funnier if Lysander plays Lysander or if Lysander doesn’t play Lysander?” Pollux asked me.

“I have no idea,” I said.

“I wanna be Robin Goodfellow,” Castor said. “I wanna give someone the head of an ass.”

“You want to what?” I asked.

“Be Puck,” Pollux said. “He gives a guy a donkey head.”

“Right,” I said, vaguely recalling that one of the Shakespeare plays had that in it.

“Maybe I could be Demetrius,” Pollux said, giving his twin a grin.

“Maybe,” Castor said.

By that point, Apollo’s kids were going up to the brazier, and we could start eating. Castor and Pollux acted like casting directors and picking out who would be good for which characters. They also told me stories about past performances like the time Rosalind stepped on her skirt and nearly ripped it in half partway through Macbeth. I didn’t do a great job trying to muffle my laughter.

At the end of the meal, Chiron pounded his hoof against the ground, but Lysander was the one that stood up.

“Just a reminder,” he announced, voice clearly audible even from the other side of the pavilion. “No sing along tonight. We’re doing a jam session in the rock genre. Anyone’s free to join in, but if you’re going to listen, please, don’t be disruptive. If you have any complaints about the genre, take ‘em to Andrew.”

"Are you gonna go?" I asked the twins once Lysander had finished.

They both shook their heads.

"In case you haven't noticed," Castor said. "We're theater kids."

"So when they do musical theater, we'll join in," Pollux said.

"Get a whole orchestra together," Castor said.

"That'll be the day," Pollux said with a grin.

"Do you actually play an instrument?" I asked.

"Yeah, I do cello," Pollux said.

"I do glockenspiel," Castor said, perfectly straight faced.

"You're messing with me," I said, suspicious.

"Yeah, no, I play oboe," he said with a grin. "So obviously we're great fits for rock music."

"Yeah, don't think I've ever heard Queen do an oboe solo," I said, and both twins laughed.

We parted ways after dinner. Castor and Pollux headed towards the cabins while I made my way to the amphitheater. I didn't climb all the way up to the top row since I wasn't in danger of being asked to sing. No one was quite set up yet. Several of the Apollo kids were bringing over pieces of a drum kit. Another was bringing folding chairs. Some people carrying amps and cords and so on.

"Should I help?" I asked Lee as he was setting down an amp.

"Do you know how to set anything up?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Then you're fine," he said. "Just stay there."

Andrew showed up with a guitar case and an amp.

"You play guitar?" I asked him.

"Yeah, dude, it's not like illegal for anyone but cabin seven to play an instrument," he said as he set down his amp. “We’d never hear anything decent if it was.”

Lee flipped him off, but Andrew grinned.

One of the Demeter kids showed up, bringing her own acoustic guitar. Bea carted over an electric keyboard. I was a little surprised to see Michael, the youngest member of cabin seven not in group A, get behind the drums. He was my age and younger than basically everyone else joining in.

A few more people showed up to be an audience when they were at the tuning stage and warming up including the three youngest Apollo kids who decided to sit next to me. Then Lee looked over at Lysander with a grin and started a driving bass line without any other warning. Lysander looked up, waited a few more beats then came in with a similar pattern on his electric guitar. They both stopped at the same time and laughed.

"That mean you're ready then?" Michael asked impatiently.

"Yeah, let's go," Bea said.

"Just don't go crazy, Mike," Lysander warned him.

Michael raised his arms like he was going to start going crazy on the drums, but he stopped right before he hit the surface. He tapped the sticks together to create a steady beat. "How's that?"

Lysander looked around the group then said, "Yeah, that's fine."

Michael nodded then tapped out the same beat on his sticks before leading into proper drumming. Everyone waited a few moments before joining in with him. It didn't really feel like a song. It didn't seem like it was leading to anywhere, and no one was playing particularly loud. It was more like they were creating a texture or something.

Then Lysander came in with a solo I didn’t recognize, playing over everyone else, before fading back again. The solos were passed around, Andrew and the Demeter camper were able to keep up with the rest. I was pretty sure I’d heard the solo Andrew played get blasted out of cabin five before. As a group, they grew louder and quieter, even sounding like they might cut off a few times before coming back in. Sometimes a handful of them would come in together, supporting each other until it almost sounded like a song.

I wasn't sure how long they played for, but eventually, Michael played a quiet roll on the cymbal. Lysander's last few melodic notes faded out like he was sending us off for the night to have sweet dreams. 

Sammy, Will, and Aislinn all started clapping, and Will even cheered.

"Yeah, little man, up top," Andrew said, holding up his hand for a high five.

Will rushed over to smack his hand, and Andrew faked like it actually hurt him.

"Alright, come on, goofball," Lysander said. "You need to start getting ready for bed."

"No," he said. "I wanna play, too."

"Next time, buddy," Lysander said.

Will pouted, but Lysander didn't give in. He started packing up like everyone else.

"What'd you think?" Lysander asked me after he had his guitar put away.

"It was good," I said. "Way better than my school bands.

Lysander laughed. "Do you play anything?"

"Uh, a recorder," I said.

He made a slightly disgusted face.

"Yeah, I was really bad at it," I admitted. I almost failed music class which I hadn’t known beforehand was a thing you could do.

"Doesn't mean you can't learn something else," he offered.

"Guitar," Andrew cut in with.

"No, bass," Lee said. 

"Or both or whatever else you want," Lysander said.

"Maybe," I said.

I watched them all pack up rather than joining the other audience members leaving. I walked with Lysander across the grass towards the cabins as he held the amp in one hand and Aislinn's hand in the other, guitar in its case on his back.

"If I wanted to learn guitar," I said quietly. "Would you be able to teach me?"

"Sure," Lysander said easily like it wouldn't be a problem at all.

"I wanna learn harp," Aislinn said.

"Oh, a harp, so original," Lysander teased.

"Lysander," she complained. "Dad said I could."

"Yeah, Dad's not gonna stop you from learning harp of all things," he said.

We arrived at cabin seven first.

"Alright, see ya, Perce," Lysander said as he escorted Aislinn up the porch. "Have sweet dreams, don't let the bed bugs bite, and all that jazz."

"Night," I called to him before heading to my cabin to pick up my toiletries.

I was quick getting ready for bed. Lysander hadn’t told me when he could start teaching me, but I couldn’t wait. I had heard the story of Orpheus, that he'd used music to try and get Eurydice back from the Underworld, but it wasn't just about getting my mom back. I probably wasn't going to be good enough to play like that, but it might be kinda cool to be able to join in a jam session, to have Lysander look over at me and let me take a solo.

Chapter Text

Greek lessons in the morning were still kind of awful. Darryl taught me the same, but it was still only the Apollo kids who were nice to me. I did my best to ignore everyone eying me, but it made it hard to concentrate on learning.

It was a relief to get outside for lunch and then go to the stables to meet with cabin ten. As soon as I got there, I saw that what I was wearing didn’t exactly match what everyone else had going on. Emmeline was the only one wearing those tan pants with the patches on the inside of the knee that I’d only ever seen in movies before, but everyone else was still wearing full length pants and boots. I was stuck with the shorts and sneakers I’d been wearing ever since I got here.

Emmeline frowned at me. Then she turned to the rest of the group. "Everyone, start saddling up while I walk Percy through everything."

She received nods as everyone headed inside. She motioned me to follow her a little away from the stables.

She faced me with a sigh as she looked me over closely from head to toe. I tried my best not to fidget.

“Do you have any appropriate clothes for horseback riding?” she asked. “I understand you’re not likely to have the right kinds of boots, but do you have any pants at all?”

I shook my head, trying to ignore the way my cheeks were heating.

She sighed. “Has Luke or anyone else gotten you anything?”

"Only a couple things," I said quietly. “Not clothes.”

She frowned, and I braced.

“That is unacceptable,” she said. “If you still want to ride today, you can, but I’m warning you it will not be the most comfortable. Afterwards, we will speak with Chiron or Mr. D about your situation.”

I waited for more, but nothing else came. “Can I ride?”

“If you’d like,” she said even though she shot my shorts a nasty look.

I nodded.

"Alright, then we’ll start you with Nancy,” Emmeline said decisively, walking back towards the stable.

"Nancy?" I asked as I followed her.

"She's an older mare. She's calm and good for beginners," she explained.

The stables were cooler than outside. It smelled of horse sweat, hay, dirt, and a little bit of manure. I couldn't say it was all that bad.

There were several horses in the main aisle of the stable with ropes on both sides of their heads and attached to the walls so they wouldn't be able to run off. Every single one of them seemed to shift around before lowering their heads.

Greetings, son of Poseidon

I gaped at the horse in front while Emmeline continued down the hallway. I carefully followed after her, keeping a wary eye on the horse. "The horses here talk?" I asked.

And then all the demigods were also looking right at me.

"No, the horses don't talk," Emmeline said. “But the rest of us are the children of the goddess of love, not the son of the father of horses.”

"So I can talk to horses?” I asked.

"Seems like," she said before leading me into a room in the center of the hallway.

“They’re not like literally my siblings, are they?” I asked.

She gave me an unimpressed look.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” she said the gestured to the closest wall where saddles rested on special racks. "This is the tack room, where we keep all the gear and supplies. Before we saddle the horses, we take them out on lead ropes so we can make sure they're healthy and groomed before we ride them.”

She grabbed a lead and led me out and across the way to the stall on the other side. She clipped the lead rope to the harness around the horse’s face and led it out to the aisle.

Hello, my lord the horse told me as she followed Emmeline.

"Hi," I told her awkwardly.

"You can talk to her so long as you don’t get distracted,” Emmeline said. “These animals are all much bigger than you, and can severely injure you if you’re not careful, understand?”

“Got it,” I said.

“Alright, let’s get our grooming supplies,” she said and took me back into the tack room to grab all the brushes and everything else. "I'll walk you through everything. Just move calmly and be careful going behind her because if you startle her, she could kick you."

I would never kick you, my lord Nancy informed me.

"Thanks, got it," I said.

Emmeline and Nancy both walked me through grooming Nancy's coat and checking her hooves. Then we finally moved on to putting on the saddle and bridle.

"Now, there's two main types of riding," she said after she walked me through putting on the saddle blanket and saddle on Nancy before tightening the girth. "English and western, and we start off with western here because most people will only ever do trail riding, and this is more comfortable for that.”

"Okay," I said, “but I’m guessing you didn’t stop there.”

She smiled for the first time, looking like she belonged on the cover of some horse magazine. “No, and if you’re any good, you shouldn’t either.”

She then guided me through putting on the bridle, and I returned one of the lead ropes and the halter then grabbed a helmet. Not a Greek one. One for horse riding.

“Ready to mount?” Emmeline asked as she led Nancy outside with the remaining lead she’d attached to the bridle.

I stared wide eyed at Nancy’s shoulders which were a little above level with my eyes.

I am not so tall, my lord Nancy told me. I will be very still.

But I'd never done it before, and the stirrup alone seemed pretty high.

“Okay,” I said, and Emmeline moved in closer.

I got my foot into the stirrup, Emmeline helped boost me up, and I awkwardly got my other leg over Nancy's back.

Well done Nancy said, shifting slightly under my weight.

The others were long gone by then, and Emmeline led me to a fenced off area where there was freshly turned dirt. She opened and closed the fence gate for me and Nancy. "Good to go?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said.

You will be a natural Nancy assured me.

I tried to sit up straighter. Before we even started going anywhere, though, Emmeline went over how to sit in the saddle and hold the reins. The hardest part was definitely trying to keep my heels down in the stirrups, and Emmeline kept shooting dirty looks at my shoes.

"Now I'm gonna back up to give you some room, but don't tense up," she said. "Squeezing the horse with your legs is the signal to go so stay relaxed and she won't move forward."

"Got it," I said.

I thought I might get nervous when Emmeline backed away leaving me on a horse alone, but Nancy didn't move. Besides, Nancy could talk to me, too. She'd tell me if I did something wrong.

"Okay, we're going to start with walking forward," Emmeline said. "Make sure you have slack in the reins, squeeze your knees together, and you can lean forward a little if you want."

I copied her instructions, and Nancy walked forward.

You will need to use more strength with other horses, my lord Nancy told me. But I will understand your guidance.

"Okay," I said, not sure if that was a critique for me or she just wanted to brag.

Emmeline let me walk in a circle around her a few times then taught me how to turn, how to stop, how to back up. "Alright, now I’m going to remove the lead rope and let you ride on your own. You don’t need to do anything fancy, just keep going around the ring.”

"Got it," I said.

Emmeline quickly removed the rope then moved towards the corner of the ring to stay out of our way. I led Nancy in a circle for a while, trying to get used to the feel of her walking underneath me and keeping my heels down.

"Make sure you're looking forward," Emmeline said. "You need to look where you're going and not watch her withers, same as riding a bicycle."

I nodded, but I hadn’t ever actually ridden a bike growing up in New York. My mother was not going to let me take a bicycle on the streets. Still, I followed her instructions. Nancy didn't seem to mind going round and round in an arena that was just dirt since she never complained to me.

Emmeline had me turn around and go the other direction for a while then practice turns and going backwards and all that.

"Ready to get down?" Emmeline asked. "You ride any longer, your legs might turn to jello.”

"Sure," I said even though I would have been fine staying a little longer. I brought Nancy to a halt in front of her.

"So first you stand up in the stirrups, get your right foot out of the stirrup, get it over the back of the horse, lean over the body of the horse and get your left foot out of the stirrup, and then you drop down. You don't want to leave your foot in the stirrup so you don't get dragged," she explained.

I would never drag you, my lord Nancy said primly.

"Okay, sure I'll just do that," I said.

I had trouble getting my feet out of the stirrups so maybe Emmeline did have a point about the shoes. The drop was farther than I expected to be, and my legs instantly turned to noodles. Emmeline grabbed my arm before I could totally collapse on the ground. 

"You good?" she asked.

"Fine," I said, getting my feet under me.

"Good job for your first ride," she said. "Now we get her back to her stall."

We basically did the reverse of before. We took all the tack off and put it away. Then we groomed Nancy who thanked us. Emmeline even let me feed her a carrot after she taught me how to do it safely, and Nancy's lips were surprisingly soft. We put her safely back in her stall, and I returned the helmet.

One of Emmeline's brothers arrived as we were heading out.

"Welcome back, Elias,” she told him. She pronounced it the Spanish way.

"Hey," he told her. He looked me over. "Don't run off I need to ask you something after I get Harold settled."

Greetings, my lord Harold told me as Elias led him into the stables.

"Do all the horses have people names?" I asked Emmeline.

"A lot of them," she admitted. "Let's get some water while you wait for Elias."

"Sounds good," I said, feeling like I was hobbling after her to the water cooler. "Do you know what he wants to talk to me about?"

"Not sure," she said. "Don't think it's the horses though."

"Why not?"

"He's not that into riding,” she said as she got us both cups. “He's always back first."

"But you like it a lot, right?" I asked, taking the cup from her.

She nodded. "My dad's a farrier so it made it easier for me to get into it."

"A farrier?" I asked.

"He takes care of horses hooves, shoes them and things like that," she explained.

"Oh, cool," I said.

We sat down on the grass. Emmeline made it look graceful, but I was just a lump on the ground, grateful to give my legs a break. I tried not to chug my water like a heathen.

Elias came out of the stables eventually. He grabbed water then sat down on my other side so I was bookended by people who looked effortlessly perfect even after grooming horses. "Hey."

"Hi," I said, still a little wary.

"Weird question," he said. "But did your mom have straight hair?"

I nearly crushed my cup. "Uh, it was a little wavy, why?"

He nodded. "Thought so. You've got that look."

"What look?" I asked.

"Brushed out curls," he said.

I immediately put my hand over my head. The little I'd done to fix up my hair that morning was now a mess from the helmet. Meanwhile, Elias's dark brown curls looked perfect even though I'd literally just seen him in a helmet.

"Gonna give him a make over?" Emmeline asked.

"No, but I don't need to let his hair suffer," he said before turning to me. "So first, stop using a brush. You need to comb your hair. You also need to wash your hair less.”

I tried to cover more of my hair with my hand. "Won't it get gross?"

I'd had health class. I knew puberty was coming for me. Mom had already made me swear to wash more often so I wouldn't stink as a teenager. Actually, that could have also been about keeping monsters away.

"For a little bit before you adjust," he said. "I can give you some product recommendations, but you have to find out what works best for you."

"Okay," I said, no idea where I was going to get any of it from.

"Also, do you towel dry your hair?" he asked. "Like you scrub it with a towel?”

"Yeah," I said because what else was I supposed to do? I didn't have a hair dryer.

"Don't do that," he said. "It's helping to make your hair frizzy. You should use a cotton t-shirt and scrunch it instead, like this."

He demonstrated the scrunching on his own hair.

"Okay," I said, not sure what that was supposed to do.

"Trust me, it'll help," he said. "It's what I do."

I looked up at his perfect, shiny curls. I decided it couldn't hurt. "I'll try it."

"Good," he said with a smile.

"Elias," Emmeline said. "We’re already going to go talk to Chiron about getting him more appropriate riding clothes. Just give me your recommendations, and we’ll get them all together.”

"Yeah, sure," he said.

The rest of the Aphrodite cabin started trickling back to the stables. Their horses all greeted me as they passed by. Once they were all returned to their stalls, and Elias had handed over his recommendations, I followed Emmeline to the Big House.

“Chiron,” she called, interrupting the game of pinochle between him and Mr. D. “Percy needs a few things.”

“Does he?” Mr. D asked, dismissive and annoyed.

“From outside of camp?” Chiron asked.

“Yeah, he needs riding clothes, well, he could probably use more clothes in general, and a few hair products,” Emmeline said.

“Of course you think he needs hair products,” Mr. D said, rolling his eyes.

“Come with me,” Chiron said.

He led us into the house, taking us into an office. He pulled the same binder off the desk I’d seen Darryl use when I’d moved cabins. He flipped through it then offered a sheet out to Emmeline.

“Write it down here and be specific,” he said. “Argus will pick it up on his next run into town on the weekend.”

“Thanks,” she said.

She had me sit down next to her while she filled the form out, double checking my clothes and shoe sizes before adding the hair products onto the end.

“You’ll feel better when you get proper clothes,” she said. “And you should listen to Elias about your hair.”

“I will,” I said, self consciously trying to flatten it.

“I’ll return this to Chiron, but you’re free for chores,” she said, getting up and taking the sheet with her. 

“Thanks,” I called after her.

She waved goodbye without looking back.

That afternoon, our group of cabins three, nine, and twelve were assigned to cleaning up and taking care of the canoes and the dock.

"You can handle this, right?" Castor asked me.

"Yeah, we'll just chill out in the shade," Pollux said, gesturing towards the nearest tree.

"Nice try," Helga said, grabbing each of them by the shoulders of their shirts to drag them to the first boat. "Do your part, or I'll feed you to the swans."

"Not the swans," Castor begged exaggeratedly, putting his hands together like he was praying. "Please, anything but the swans. You can feed them my brother, but spare me!"

"So not cool," Pollux said, not that he seemed all that offended.

"Just do your job," Helga said, leaving them there.

She walked me through everything I needed to check with the boats and the dock before leaving me to handle it. I was definitely faster than everyone else, at least until the naiads thought it would be funny to capsize the boat I was on.

"It's boring up there," one of them told me, and I could hear her clearly even though we were both underwater.

I was also stunned to realize I could breathe perfectly fine underwater. I felt at my neck, but I couldn't find any gills.

"Come swim with us," a naiad said, reaching for my hand.

I shook my head and resurfaced. I pulled myself up onto the dock so I wouldn't get dunked in again.

"Have fun?" Helga asked me dryly.

"Uh, no," I said.

She shot me an unimpressed look, but still helped me right the capsized canoe.

I did jump back into the lake once we'd finished for the naiads to show me around. They started teaching me how to weave baskets as they told me stories about the other boats they'd capsized and the time the swans had attacked a camper from cabin five for disturbing their nest one spring.

"He deserved it," one insisted. "Everyone knows you don't mess with swans' babies."

I nodded even though I hadn't known that.

"There's the horn for dinner," another said even though I hadn't heard anything.

They headed for the surface, pulling me along with them. They sat with me at dinner rather than Castor and Pollux. I wasn’t totally sure if Mr. D was any happier about it.

Chapter Text

The next afternoon, I had sword fighting again, but with cabin seven. They were all past the beginner lessons I'd barely started on so Luke set them up with their own drills before coming to join me.

I adjusted my grip on the practice weapon and waited for his assessment.

"Look, I'm going to be honest with you. The Minotaur, the hellhound, being a Big Three, you're going to have it rough," Luke said. "You need all the training you can get, but I'm here to help. You'll be able to progress faster one on one, and I'm not going to go easy on you. Ready?"

My stomach was tying itself in knots, but I nodded. "Ready."

Luke didn't cover just the basics of the movements and attacks and parries and counterattacks and disarms. He was attempted to create muscle memory. That meant drilling them over and over and over again without any water to help. If I got it wrong once, I had to do it correctly ten times.

"Relax, Luke," Lysander said about three quarters of the way through the lesson. "He's still just twelve."

"The monsters aren't going to care if he's just twelve," Luke argued.

"I know, but he's safe in camp—,"

"Are you serious?" Luke asked. "A giant hellhound landed on him right in front of us."

"We killed the hellhound," Lysander reminded him.

"None of us stopped it from getting to him, though," Luke pointed out. "It could have gotten him at any point during the game, and only Cam was there with him."

Lysander looked at me, and I quickly found an interesting mark on the ground to inspect.

Lysander sighed. "That's still no reason to refuse to give him breaks or let him drink water. Making him dehydrated won't help him against any monsters."

Luke sighed, and his voice was gentler as he said, "You're right. I just wanted to make sure he could protect himself."

"Come on, Percy, water break," Lysander said.

I followed after him to the water cooler. I chugged the water as fast as I could.

"Okay, don't choke on it," Lysander said. "It's not gonna disappear on you."

"I'm fine," I said.

Luke grabbed his own cup and actually drank it this time, too. "Ready to finish strong?" he asked me as he set his empty cup down.

"Yeah, I'm good," I said, more energized even if I'd only drunk the water rather than dumping it on myself.

We went through the movements again, and I made fewer mistakes. The last five minutes Luke left for bouting. The Apollo kids paired off against each other, and I faced Luke again. I was definitely no match for him. I was always on the defense, and he smacked me with the flat of his blade more than a few times. Not enough to really hurt, but I'd probably have a couple bruises anyways. I figured they'd wash off when I next showered.

"Good work," Luke told me as he patted my shoulder. "You made a lot of progress today."

I nodded, trying not to smile too much.

Cabin seven and I went separate ways for chores, and even Luke had to head back to cabin eleven. I met up with cabin nine and twelve. This time we cleaned the pavilion. The dropped food was gross, but still not as bad as the toilets. We had more time left over before dinner, too. Castor asked Beckendorf what he’d been working on in the forge, and he started explaining to us about all the decorative work Helga was starting to teach him.

“Can you make me a muscle cuirass?” Pollux asked once he finished.

“As soon as you get some muscle,” Beckendorf said with a smile.

Pollux clutched his gut. “I come by this naturally, I’ll have you know.”

“I know,” Beckendorf assured him, making him laugh.

I was unfortunately on my own for dinner. Castor and Pollux waved to me from next to Mr. D, but that still didn’t give me anyone to talk to.

When I got back to my cabin after sing along, I found a newspaper on the floor, like someone had shoved it under the door. It was turned to the metro page. It took me a moment to read the title.

Boy and Mother Missing After Freak Car Accident

I grabbed it from the floor and brought it closer to the light. It took me forever to read it through my building rage. I wanted to be mad that the writer quoted Smelly Gabe calling me a troubled child, but it was true that I'd been kicked out of schools and got into fights. Of course, neither he nor the author cared that I had been defending Grover when I’d gotten in those fights.

The article also included a hotline to the police to call with any information. Someone had circled it in black permanent marker.

I ripped the newspaper apart before crumpling it into a ball and chucking it away. I dropped down onto my bunk without properly getting ready for bed.

Having a horrible dream didn't make it any better. Two muscle bound men in Greek chiton, one blue and the other green, were wrestling on the beach before a city I didn't recognize. A storm built over their heads and grew darker and more dangerous each time they clashed. I knew I had to stop them, but I couldn't run towards them in the strong winds and my feet sunk into the sand.

“Give it back!” the man in the blue chiton roared.

I heard the sound of laughter, and it wasn’t coming from either man.

“Come down, little hero,” said a voice from beneath my feet, quiet and deep and dark enough to send a shiver down my spine. “Come down here.”

The sand beneath my feet spilled away, falling down, down, down. My feet slid, I turned to grab onto something, but there was only more shifting sand. I woke up, still searching for something that would hold against gravity.

My bed in cabin three was safely beneath me.

It felt like it was morning, but it was still dark outside. I could hear a roll of thunder. Guess I hadn’t only dreamed the storm.

I heard a knocking, the sound of a hoof tapping on the wooden threshold. I pushed myself out of bed. “Come in,” I called.

Grover entered the cabin, stopping at the entrance to the boy’s side of the cabin. “Mr. D wants to see you.”

“Why?”

“He wants to—I mean, I’d better let him tell you,” he said quickly.

“Alright, let me get dressed,” I said.

Grover waited for me outside as I got ready for the day. We walked to the Big House together.

I’d been half expecting this for the past few days. The head counselors and the older campers had been treating me normally, but group A definitely wasn’t. I was officially a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three who wasn’t supposed to have any kids, so I figured there was a good chance it might be a crime for me to just exist. Maybe the other gods had been debating the best way to punish me, and Mr. D was calling on me to deliver the verdict.

I looked up at the dark sky, following the clouds to the rain already coming down out over the ocean. “Think we need an umbrella?” I asked.

“No, it doesn’t rain here unless we want it to,” Grover said.

I pointed towards the approaching storm. “What the heck is that, then?”

He glanced nervously at the clouds. “It’ll pass around us. The bad weather always does.”

It hadn’t rained once since I’d been here, but this was more than just a light summer storm. I wasn’t the only one thinking it. The other campers around us were also keeping a wary eye on the horizon.

Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat in the same spot with a similar shirt on, playing pinochle with Chiron exactly like on the first day I met him except this time there were two invisible players.

“Well, well,” Mr. D said, still focused on his cards. “Our little celebrity.”

I said nothing.

“Come closer, and don’t expect me to bow down to you, mortal, just because Barnacle Beard is your father,” he said, ignoring the dangerous roar of thunder. “If I had my way, I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We’d sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble, but Chiron and Phoebus seem to feel that this would be against my duty at this cursed camp, to keep you brats safe from harm.”

“Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm,” Chiron pointed out.

“Nonsense. Boy wouldn’t feel a thing. I am strongly considering turning you into a dolphin to return you to your father. There is one other option, but it’s lethal foolishness,” Mr. D said as he stood up from the table and the playing cards fell. “I’m off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I’ll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose.”

Then he looked me in the eyes, and I tried not to shy away from the purple gleam. “Perseus Jackson, if you’re at all smart, you’ll see that’s a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do.”

Then he plucked a card off the table. He flipped it between his fingers, and it became plastic. I thought he turned it into credit card at first, but then I saw it was a security pass. He snapped his fingers. Light warped around him the same way it had when he’d summoned a goblet. For a moment, he seemed translucent before he disappeared entirely, leaving only the scent of freshly pressed grapes.

Chiron smiled tiredly at me. “Please sit, Percy and Grover.”

We sat down, and he set aside his cards. 

“Tell me, Percy,” he said. “What did you think of the hellhound?”

I swallowed. “The other head counselors thought it might be after Lysander, but I know it looked at me. If you hadn’t shot it, I’d be dead.”

“You’ll meet worse, far worse, before you’re done.”

“Done with what?”

“Your quest. Will you accept it?”

I glanced over to Grover. He had his fingers crossed. I turned back to Chiron. “You haven’t told me what it is yet.”

“That’s the hard part, the details,” he said with a grimace.

Thunder echoed across the valley. I looked out at the sea. Both the sky and the water seemed to be boiling. “Poseidon and Zeus, they’re fighting over something valuable, something that was stolen, aren’t they?”

The thunder became louder, and Chiron shot me a disapproving look.

“How do you know that?” he asked me.

I tried to pretend my cheeks weren’t heating. “The weather’s been weird since Christmas, like the sea and sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she’d overheard something about a theft. I’ve also…been having these dreams.”

“I knew it,” Grover said.

“Hush,” Chiron scolded.

“But it is his quest,” he said, excited now. “It must be him!”

“Only the Oracle can determine that,” he said. “Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and uncle are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over the theft of the master bolt.”

“A what?” I asked.

“Do not take this lightly,” Chiron warmed. “The master bolt is a two foot long cylinder of high grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with divine explosives. It is the symbol of the king’s power from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. It hurled Kronos from his throne and packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers.”

“Oh,” I said, trying not to feel overwhelmed. “And it’s missing?”

“Stolen.”

“By who?”

“By whom,” he corrected automatically. “By you, according to the king.”

“Me?” I asked.

“The king realized that his master bolt was missing after the last council of the gods on the winter solstice, stolen right from under his nose. He immediately blamed your father. A god cannot usurp another god’s symbol of power directly, that is forbidden by the most ancient of the divine laws, but the king believes your father convinced a human hero to take it.”

“But I didn’t—,”

“Patience,” Chiron said, holding up a hand. “The king has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean which gives your father some influence over the makers of his brother’s lightning. The king believes your father has taken the master bolt and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies which might be used to topple the king from his throne. The only thing he wasn’t convinced of was which hero your father used to steal the bolt. Now, the earthshaker has claimed a son who was in New York during the solstice. The king believes he has found his thief.”

“But I’ve never been to Olympus! Ze—the king is crazy!”

Chiron sighed. “I wouldn’t use such language. He is perhaps a tad paranoid, but your father has tried to unseat him before. I believe it was question thirty eight on your final exam.”

I didn’t see how I could be accused of stealing a god’s weapon when I didn’t even know how to get up to Olympus. I hadn’t even believed they’d existed back then. Besides, Gabe always busted me when I so much as looked too long at the pizzas served at his poker parties.

“It was something about a golden net?” I asked, trying to put together what we’d covered in class. “My father, the queen and a few other gods, they trapped the king until he promised to be a better ruler, right?”

“Correct,” Chiron said, “It was the goddess of wisdom and Phoebus who assisted. It is partly why Phoebus is watched so closely now, and the king has never trusted your father since. The earthshaker has, of course, denied the accusation and took great offense. They have been arguing for months, threatening war, and now you’ve become the proverbial last straw.”

“But I’m just a kid!”

“Percy,” Grover said. “If you were the king, and the brother who had tried to overthrow you once already and just admitted to breaking a sacred oath he took with you, that he fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you, wouldn’t you be a little worried about it?”

“But I didn’t do anything. My father didn’t really have the master bolt stolen, did he?”

Chiron sighed. “Most would agree thievery is not your father’s style, but he is too proud to try convincing his brother of that. The king has demanded that the earthshaker return the bolt by the summer solstice, ten days from now. Your father wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I’d hoped that diplomacy might prevail, but your arrival has inflamed the king’s temper. Unless the bolt is returned, there will be war. Do you know what a full fledged war would look like, Percy?” 

“Bad?”

“Imagine a world in chaos, nature at war with itself, Olympians forced to choose sides. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight.”

“Bad.”

“And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel the king’s wrath.”

Rain began to fall. All the campers stopped what they were doing to stare up at the sky in stunned silence. I had brought the storm here. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me.

“So I have to find the stupid bolt and return it to the king,” I said.

“What better peace offering than for the son of the earthshaker to return the king’s weapon?”

I didn’t really like the whole return a weapon part of the equation. “If my father doesn’t have it, where is it?”

“I believe I know,” Chiron said, expression turning grim. “Part of a prophecy I received years ago, some of the lines make sense to me now. Before, I can say more, you must officially take up the quest.”

“Why can’t you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?”

“Because then you would be too afraid to accept the challenge.”

I glanced out at the storm that the other campers had fled from. “Good point.”

“You agree then?”

I looked over to Grover who gave me a supportive nod. It was easy for him. This was his big break, and I was the one Zeus wanted to barbecue. “Alright. It’s better than being turned into a dolphin.”

“Then it’s time you consulted the Oracle,” Chiron said.

Chapter Text

"Go up to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more," Chiron instructed.

It didn't make me feel any better about this whole quest situation. I went up four flights of stairs that ended beneath a green trapdoor. I pulled the cord and the door swung down to reveal a wooden ladder that extended into place.

I climbed up into warm, stuffy air with the scent of mildew and rotted wood when my head passed through the door. All kinds of junk filled the room. There were armor stands, steamer trunks, a table full of pickled monster parts. There were even mounted trophy heads.

The worst by far was a mummy sitting on a tripod stool and backlit by the window. It wasn't even wrapped up in strips of fabric, just a shriveled husk of a woman wearing a tie-dye sundress, beaded necklaces, and a headband. She'd been dead a long, long time.

She suddenly sat up right on the stool, and I nearly walked backwards into the trapdoor. Her mouth opened and green mist poured out, coiling over the floor and hissing like snakes. I turned back, but the ladder folded up and the door slammed shut.

I heard a woman's voice slipping into my mind and not quite as seamlessly as Apollo's had.

I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.

I was tempted to apologize and say oops wrong door just looking for the bathroom, but I stayed where I was and forced myself to breathe normally.

The mummy wasn't alive, just a vessel for something else, the green mist swirling around on the floor. It didn't feel evil the way my math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur had. It felt more like the three fates I'd seen knitting on the roadside. It was ancient, powerful, and definitely not human, but not out to kill me.

I faced it and asked, "What is my destiny?"

The mist curled up around the table full of pickle jars. It obscured the gruesome trophies to form four men sitting around it and playing cards. Their faces solidified, revealing Smelly Gabe and his poker buddies.

I clenched my fists despite having seen the illusion form for myself.

Gabe turned to me first. The voice of the Oracle came from his mouth. You shall go west and face the god who has turned.

The man to his right added You shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned.

Then it moved to the next man. You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.

Last came Eddie, our building super, who told me You shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.

The figures dissolved back into the mist. I stared stunned for a moment as it crawled back into the mouth of the mummy. "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"

The last of the mist disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She leaned back against the wall, jaw locked tight. The attic was silent, filled only by still air and dusty mementos.

I had the feeling I wouldn't get anything more no matter how long I waited. My audience with the Oracle was over, and I made my way back downstairs.

"Well?" Chiron asked me.

I sunk down onto one of the chairs at the card table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."

"That's great!" Grover said, chewing excitedly on Mr. D's abandoned Diet Coke can.

"What did the Oracle say specifically?" Chiron asked. "The exact wording is important."

"She said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover said confidently.

Chiron seemed suspicious still. "Anything else?"

I refused to talk about any friend betraying me. I didn't have that many. Cam and Jessa were avoiding me so did that just leave the head counselors? Castor and Pollux who sat with me rather than their dad? Grover himself?

The last line bothered me just as much. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me by the way you're doomed to fail? How could I tell that to Chiron who controlled whether I'd even get to leave?

"No," I said, shaking my head. "That was it."

"Very well, Percy," he said, still watching me closely. "But know that the Oracle's words often have double meanings. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

He could probably tell I was holding something back and trying to encourage me to come forward, but it’s not as if the words were that unclear.

"Okay, so where do I go? Who's this god in the west?" I asked.

"If the king and the earthshaker weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Someone else who wants to take over?"

Chiron nodded. "Someone who would be strengthened by the death of millions and hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath which they have both now broken."

My dream came to mind, the dark voice speaking from under the ground. "The Lord of the Underworld."

"Yes, he is the only possibility."

"Whoa, wait, what?" Grover asked, a scrap of aluminum falling out of his mouth.

"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron said. "She watched him until she was able to confirm his identity then attacked. Furies serve only one master."

"Yeah, but—but he hates all heroes, and if he found out Percy is the result of the broken oath..."

"A hellhound got into the forest. They can only be summoned from the fields of punishment. The Lord of the Underworld must have a spy here and suspects that the earthshaker will use Percy to clear his name. Killing him would clear his path," Chiron said.

"Great, two major gods want to kill me," I muttered.

"But a quest to..." Grover cleared his throat. "Couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."

Chiron shook his head. "He would have hidden it in the Underworld knowing the king would blame the earthshaker. I don't know why he would have chosen now of all times to strike, but one thing is clear. Percy must travel to the Underworld, retrieve the bolt, and reveal all."

I clenched my fists, looking out across the valley at the sea. I wasn't afraid. I was ready. I wanted payback. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far. He was the reason my mother had been turned to glitter. Now he was framing me and my father for a theft we hadn't committed. Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld...

There was a sound of paper shredding. Grover had started eating the playing cards. Poor guy needed to come with me on a quest to get his searcher's license, but how could I ask him to come when the Oracle had said I would fail? This was suicidal.

"Look, if we know who it is, why can't we tell the other gods?" I asked. "The king or my father could go down there and bust some heads."

"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, they could not retrieve the bolt themselves anymore than Phoebus could help you against Pasiphaë’s son. Gods cannot cross each other's territories without invitation. Heroes, however, can go anywhere and challenge anyone if they are bold and strong enough. A god cannot be held responsible for their actions. Why do you think the gods operate through them?"

"You're saying I'm being used."

"I'm saying it was no accident your father had claimed you now. It's a risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."

My dad needed me.

Emotions roiled inside me like the sea in a squall. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. He hadn't appeared when my mother and me had needed help escaping the Minotaur. That had been Apollo. Now suddenly my father needed me. I was supposed to go and help him.

"You've known I was the sea god's son all along, haven't you?" I asked Chiron.

"I had my suspicions," he confessed. "I've spoken to the Oracle as well."

I got the sense there was a lot more to this prophecy he wasn't telling me about. I couldn't exactly call him on it. I hadn't told him everything either.

"So let me get this straight," I said. "I go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Yes," Chiron said.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."

"Yes."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice in ten days."

"Yes."

I turned to Grover who shoved another card into his mouth.

"Did I mention Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked.

"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask you to do that."

"Oh...it's just that satyrs and underground places...well," he took a deep breath and brushed the bits of aluminum and playing cards off his shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If you're serious about wanting me to come, I'll come. I won't let you down."

I smiled up at him in relief, trying to ignore the prickle of tears in my eyes. Grover was the only friend I’d ever had for more than a few months. I’d never seen his abilities, he’d been passed out during the fight with the Minotaur, but I wouldn’t take anyone else over him on a quest to the Underworld.

“All the way, G-man,” I told him then turned back towards Chiron. “So where do we go? The Oracle just said we go west.”

“Then entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, it’s in America.”

“Where?”

“I thought that would be obvious. It’s in Los Angeles.”

“Oh, so we just get on a plane—,”

“No!” Grover shrieked. “What are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?”

I shook my head, feeling my cheeks heat. My mom had never taken me on a vacation far enough to take a plane. She’d said we didn’t have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.

“You’re the son of the sea god, and the Lord of the Sky is his bitterest rival. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane that would take you into the king’s domain. You would never make it down alive,” Chiron said.

Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder boomed.

“Okay,” I said. “So I’ll travel overland.”

“Absolutely,” Chiron said. “Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help.”

“Gee, who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?” I asked.

The air behind Chiron shimmered, and Annabeth appeared, shoving her cap into her back pocket.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for a quest, Seaweed Brain,” she said. “My mother is no fan of your father, but if you’re going to save the world, I’m the best person to keep you from messing up.”

I sincerely doubted that. Nearly every other head counselor and Bea had been on a quest before. The trouble was, someone was going to betray me. One of them had summoned a hellhound specifically to try and kill me. I couldn’t even begin to guess which, couldn’t watch my back against that kind of threat for an entire quest.

“I suppose you’ve got a plan, Wise Girl?” I asked her.

“Do you want my help or not?” she asked.

I nodded. She’d gotten me electrocuted, but her plan for capture the flag had worked, and she’d had the guts to try it right under Darryl’s nose. “Sounds like we have a trio.”

“Excellent,” Chiron said. “We can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan this afternoon. After that, you’ll be on your own.”

Thunder rumbled, and the skies opened up, rain falling down hard and fast on fields that were never supposed to experience violent weather. I watched as the campers still outside sprinted for the cabins and the ocean tossed up frothy waves in the distance.

“No time to waste,” Chiron said. “I think you should all get packing.”

I nodded, getting to my feet. “Let’s go.”

“We’ll meet back here in an hour?” Annabeth asked.

“Sure,” I said.

I didn’t have a raincoat or an umbrella or anything. I walked down the porch steps, took a breath, and started running. The rain soaked me within five steps, and I sped up. I shivered once I made it back to cabin three’s cool interior.

I looked over the Minotaur horn then set it safely in the bottom drawer of my bedside dresser. Everything else I had, I shoved one by one into my backpack. I could use a sweatshirt or a raincoat or something, but I hadn’t seen one in the camp store, not that I had money for it anyways. I shouldered the bag onto my back and headed towards the entrance, preparing to make the mad dash back to the Big House.

I paused when I saw two figures out in the rain. They were headed for my cabin. They climbed up onto the porch and pulled off their raincoat hoods.

“You’re seriously taking Annabeth on a quest?” Darryl asked. “To the Underworld?”

“Yeah,” I said. “She’s been wanting to go on a quest for so long.”

“She’s twelve, of course, she wants to go on a quest,” she said. “You’re twelve. You think it’s a good idea to take a girl who set you up as bait for cabin five on a quest with you.”

“You spoke to the Oracle already?” Lysander asked.

“Yeah.”

He whispered something that I was sure was a curse word. Then he shook his head. “What do you have packed? Are you even prepared to go on a quest?”

I pulled my backpack free, handing it over to him. He looked through it quickly.

“You don’t have any other clothes or anything else?” he asked. “You’re traveling cross country. That’s a lot of different climates you’re going to be going through.”

“No, that’s all I’ve got,” I said. “The order I made with Emmeline hasn’t come yet.

He sighed.

Darryl leaned in towards Lysander and quietly asked, “Does Mike have anything that would fit him?”

“He’s like already a head taller than Mike,” Lysander said, zipping my bag shut and passing it back to me. “Come on. Let’s see if someone has something you can borrow.”

I put it back on and followed him over to cabin seven. The rain had softened the ground and turned it to squishy mud, making it much harder to walk through. I nearly slid down, but Lysander caught my arm and steadied me. He led the way up to cabin seven, and Darryl politely stayed out on the porch.

“Hey,” Lysander called as he moved through a main room with a lot of honey toned wood. It looked rustic enough to actually be a cabin out in the woods in the middle of nowhere despite the gold exterior. “Anyone got any extra clothes? Percy’s going on a cross country quest, and he doesn’t have a lot.”

“Percy is?” Lee asked from somewhere deeper on the boys side of the cabin. “The kid who just got here and was recently mauled by a hellhound’s going on a quest?”

“Yeah, he already talked to the Oracle so,” Lysander said, holding up his hands. “We’re stuck with it.”

Lee poked his head out from the doorway. “What size do you wear?”

I told him.

“That’s my size,” Gordie, second youngest in group B from cabin seven, said. “Or close enough to it.”

“You’re okay with Percy borrowing a couple things?” Lysander asked.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not just going to leave him to die,” Gordie said.

“I’m not gonna die,” I said. “The Oracle didn’t say anything about that.”

Lysander and Lee shared a look.

“A lot of things can happen before death,” Lee said. “Not to freak you out.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said.

“We’ll pray to Dad for you,” Lysander said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “He really can’t get involved on any quests, but it never hurts to get a god on your good side.”

Considering the way Apollo’s arrows had phased through the Minotaur, a raincoat would do me more good.

“Here,” Gordie said, coming into the main room with clothes piled up high enough in his arms he could barely see over them. He set them down on the couch. “Raincoat, sweatshirt, jeans, sweatpants, extra socks and underwear because you always need more than you think you need, gloves, and do you think you need long johns?”

“Gordie, it’s summer, why would he need long johns?” Lee asked.

“I don’t know, you said cross country, and the weather’s wacky, and I wanted him to be prepared,” Gordie said.

“Okay, just because your dad’s an Eagle Scout does not mean you need to pack absolutely everything every time,” Lee said.

“Phoebus…is an Eagle Scout?” I asked.

Gordie’s cheeks turned a vibrant red.

“No, his other dad is,” Lysander said.

“Other dad?” I asked.

“Oh, so it’s fine when none of cabin six is born normally, but when it’s me, it’s weird,” Gordie complained.

“No one in cabin six is born normally?” I asked. “What does that even mean?”

“The goddess of wisdom is still a virgin. All of her kids are born from her thoughts and delivered to our mortal parent in a literal gold basket,” Darryl said, leaning into the room from the porch.

“Because she’s too cool to set up a normal college fund or whatever,” Lysander said.

“Phoebus makes a college fund for you guys?” I asked.

“What, you think the god of knowledge’s kids aren’t going to go to college?” Lee asked. “We’re absolutely going to college.”

“You can go to trade school, too,” Lysander said. “No one’s making you apply to ten schools.”

“I’m not applying to ten schools. I just haven’t narrowed it down yet,” Lee said. “And trade school is still school. That’s why Dad’s even cool with it in the first place.”

“Give me your backpack,” Gordie interrupted, holding out his hand.

I passed my backpack over to him. He opened it up then looked scandalized. “What is this?”

“Clothes mostly,” I said.

“Did no one ever teach you how to pack?” he asked then proceeded to dump everything onto the brown leather couch.

“I can pack,” I insisted.

“Not to Gordie’s standards, you can’t,” Lee said.

Gordie quickly began sorting out all the clothes. He shoved the raincoat at me first, and Lysander motioned to put it on so I did. Meanwhile, Gordie laid out shirts with pants and underwear and socks, getting them all folded and aligned then rolled them up. There were shirts, underwear, and socks leftover that he rolled up on their own as well as the sweatshirt.

“Did you seriously only pack a toothbrush for toiletries?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He sighed heavily. “I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared into the boys side of the cabin then came back with a few things. He held them up one by one, “Toilet paper, little flashlight, hand sanitizer. Get a comb, deodorant, and a bar of soap from the camp store.”

“I’ll take him over,” Lysander said as Gordie stuffed everything neatly into my bag. “He’s gonna need cash and drachma, too.”

“Drachma?” I asked.

“Money for non-mortal transactions,” he said.

Whatever those were.

“Okay, sure,” I said as Gordie zipped my bag up.

“I’m gonna pray to Dad twice a day for you,” he said as he handed it back to me.

“Thanks,” I said. “That’s very encouraging.”

“You’re gonna need it,” he said, patting my shoulder.

Chapter Text

“Let’s go,” Darryl said once I was all set.

“You don’t have to take me,” I said. “I know where the camp store is.”

“You packed only a toothbrush and like one set of clothes at most,” Lysander said, pulling his hood up again.

I kept my mouth shut and pulled my hood up, too.

We made our way through the mud and the rain to the camp store. One of the Demeter kids that was a couple years older than me was behind the counter, eying the storm with a distrustful look. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey, Tessa, we need the usual for a quest,” Darryl told her.

“And a comb, deodorant, and a bar of soap,” Lysander added.

Tessa looked between the two of them skeptically. “Are you serious? No one’s allowed on any quests.”

“He already talked to the Oracle,” Lysander said.

“He?” she asked. “You’re not the one going?”

“No, Percy is,” he said.

“Alone?”

“No, he’s going with Annabeth and a satyr,” Darryl said.

Tessa narrowed her eyes at us. “Are you messing with me? You know I’ll get in trouble for real if I just give you a hundred dollars and twenty drachma.”

“We’re not kidding, I swear,” Lysander said.

“I saw a mummy in the attic that spewed green smoke that turned into my stepfather’s poker table,” I told her.

“There’s a mummy in the attic?” Tessa asked, her voice rising in pitch.

“Okay, no calling her a mummy, alright?” Lysander said. “Dad’s still majorly pissed about the curse, so if you don’t want one yourself, be nice to her.”

“There’s a cursed mummy in the attic?” she asked, voice going even squeakier.

“What did I just say?” Lysander asked.

“Tessa,” Darryl said, smiling pleasantly at her. “We’ve talked to Chiron already. He’s the one who sent Percy to see the Oracle. Just get us the things we need, and we’ll be out of your hair.”

“Okay,” she said, abandoning us at the counter to grab everything.

The comb, deodorant, and bar of soap were all normal generics I’d seen before. The dollars were normal, too, but I’d never held one hundred dollars of cold hard cash in my hands before in my life. The drachma looked like pirate treasure from a movie. They were all gold, the size of girl scout cookies, and had one of the Olympians stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. Sticking them in a plastic baggie just made it feel more like I should just start peeling off the gold to get to the chocolate.

“Is this real?” I asked Darryl, holding up the whole bag. “It’s not candy?”

“Yes, please don’t eat it,” she said with a sigh. “Gold is soft, and it will also poison you.”

“Don’t lose it either,” Lysander said. “Mortals will see normal gold coins, and we don’t need drachma ending up involved in money laundering schemes. Uncle hates when it happens.”

“Wait, which uncle?” I asked.

“The messenger,” Darryl answered. “He’s the god of merchants and commerce. If we lose it, and it ends up circulating or getting melted down, he’s the one that has to deal with it, and according to him, it’s very annoying.”

“Yeah, I bet,” I said, double checking the baggie was really closed before sticking it way down deep in my backpack.

“Alright, let’s head to the Big House,” Darryl said.

The rain still hadn’t let up. We ran across the field to the farmhouse, squeaking across the porch to the door. Chiron, Annabeth, and Grover were already waiting for us as well as the security guy, Argus.

“Got everything?” Darryl asked Annabeth. “We got Percy the cash and drachma from the store.”

Annabeth nodded. “Chiron gave me the nectar and ambrosia.”

“And you have your knife?” she asked.

Annabeth tapped her forearm, and I could make out the shadow of her weapon underneath her shirtsleeve.

“Cap?”

She patted her back pocket where the cap stuck out. “I’ve also got my architecture book.”

Darryl’s eyebrows rose, but all she said was, “Okay, good.”

I checked Grover, and he was wearing fake feet, pants, and a rasta-style green cap to pass as human. He gave me a nod.

“I believe you’re all set then,” Chiron said. “Argus will drive you into the city, and, well, keep an eye on things.

The extra eyes on Argus’s hands blinked.

I heard footsteps on the porch. The front door flew open, and there was Luke, half soaked even with his raincoat on and carrying a pair of red converse.

“Hey, glad I caught you,” he said with a smile as he came more fully into the room.

Annabeth blushed as she looked up at Luke.

“I wanted to wish you guys good luck,” he said then turned towards me. “And I thought, um, maybe you could use these.”

He held out the converse, and I took them from him. They had to be a few sizes too large for me.

Then he said, “Maia.”

White bird wings sprouted from the heels, and I dropped both shoes. They flopped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared again.

“Awesome,” Grover said.

Luke grinned. “Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don’t use them much these days…”

His expression fell.

I couldn’t find any words. It was cool that Luke had come to say good-bye. I wasn’t sure how he’d felt after our last training session and now me getting this quest, but here he was giving me a magical gift. It made my cheeks heat, and I was sure I had to be as red as Annabeth.

“Hey, man, thanks,” I told him as I gathered the shoes up.

“Listen, Percy,” Luke said, looking uncomfortable. “A lot of hopes are riding on you, so just, kill some monsters for me, okay?”

I nodded, and Luke pulled me into a half hug. As he moved onto Grover, Lysander stepped up to me.

“Hey,” he said gently as he put his hands on my shoulders, making sure to look me in the eyes. “It’s true my dad can’t kill any monsters for you, but if it’s really bad, and you’re not close to your father’s domain, pray to him. He’ll come up with something. Understand?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Good,” he said, and then he pulled me into a full and proper hug. It was warm even though we were both still wearing damp rain jackets. He ruffled my hair as I pulled away. “Stay safe, don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t, promise,” I said even though that was probably going to be a lie if I was going to be able to rescue my mother.

He nodded, moving back so Darryl could talk to me.

“Look, I know Annabeth wasn’t great during capture the flag, but she is our mother’s daughter and she’s been wanting this forever, so just hear her ideas out even if it’s your quest, okay?” she asked.

“I got it,” I said.

“Keep track of your environment, and retreat if the force is too overwhelming,” Darryl said. “Don’t let yourself get surrounded, that’s the worst position you could be in.”

“I’ll try,” I told her.

“Okay,” she said, hugging me. She whispered to me, “If there’s nothing else you can do, call Phoebus. He’ll break the rules if he has to.”

Then she let me go.

I looked over to Grover and Annabeth to see Luke giving her a goodbye hug. She looked like she might pass out.

“Let’s get going,” Chiron said, and he had Argus led the three of us out of the house and back into the rain.

Once we were outside, I told Annabeth, “You’re hyperventilating.”

“Am not,” she argued.

“Did you set it up so he could capture the flag instead of one of your siblings?”

Annabeth shot me a sharp look. “Why do I want to go anywhere with you?”

She stomped ahead, following Argus up the hill.

I caught up to Chiron. “I won’t be able to use these, will I?”

I held up the converse towards him.

He shook his head. “Luke meant well, but taking to the air  would be most unwise.”

I nodded, giving the shoes one last appreciative look, then turned around. “Hey, Grover, want a magic item?”

He perked up. “Me?”

I held the gift out to him. He switched out his false feet and shoes as fast as he could in the rain and mud.

“Maia!” he shouted.

He got a couple feet into the air then fell over sideways so he was dragged across the wet grass with the flying shoes bucking up and down like tiny broncos.

“You need to practice,” Chiron called. “Come back down and try again.”

Grover only kept yelling as he was dragged over the hill after Argus and Annabeth. I prepared to run, but Chiron caught my arm.

“I should have trained you better, Percy,” he said soberly. “I thought we would have more time. Everyone else, they’ve always had so much more training.”

“That’s okay, I just wish—,”

I stopped. I had been about to whine, to ask for a gift from my father like Luke had received from his. That I could rely on my own father on this quest the way both Lysander and Darryl told me to call for Apollo if things got bad.

“What am I thinking?” Chiron asked. “I can’t let you go on a quest without this.”

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was a normal disposable ballpoint pen with black ink and removable cap. It probably cost thirty cents tops.

“Gee, thanks,” I said.

“Percy, that is a gift from your father. I’ve kept it for years, not knowing who I was waiting for, but the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the receiver of this gift.”

During the trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chiron had thrown me a pen. I’d uncapped it to reveal a sword. I’d vaporized Mrs. Dodds with it.

I pulled off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.

“The sword has a long and tragic history that we don’t need to go into,” Chiron said. “Its name is Anaklusmos.”

“Riptide,” I translated.

“Use it only for emergencies and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals, unless absolutely necessary of course, but this sword wouldn’t harm them in any case.”

“What do you mean it wouldn’t harm mortals?” I asked. “How could it not?”

“That sword is made of celestial bronze, forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It’s deadly to monsters, any creature from the Underworld, but the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to harm. I should warn you, as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable.”

“Good to know.”

“Now recap the pen.”

I set the pen cap to the tip of the sword, and it shrank back into a normal pen. I tucked it in my pocket.

“Uh, what happens if I lose the pen?” I asked as I’ve lost more than a few in my time.

“You can’t.”

“How’s that?”

“It’s enchanted to always reappear in your pocket. Try it,” he said, gesturing to our surroundings with his arm.

I gave him a skeptical look, but he simply waited for me. I threw the pen as far as I could, and I watched it fall into the grass, likely to roll away forever.

“It may take a moment or two, but check your pocket,” Chiron told me.

I reached it, and my fingertips hit the plastic of the pen’s barrel. “Okay, that’s extremely cool, but what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?”

Chiron smiled. “Mist is a powerful thing, Percy.”

“Mist?”

“Yes, read the Iliad. It’s full of references to it. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality.”

I swallowed as I felt a cold  chill go down my spine, like some of the rain had made it through Gordie’s raincoat, and a weight settled on my shoulders. I was actually leaving camp. I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan aside from pray, and the only weapon I had to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead was a sword.

“Do I get a shield?” I asked.

“Those are more difficult to carry along for such long trips,” Chiron said. “We can see about getting you a collapsible one when you return.”

“Chiron…when you say the gods are immortal, I mean, there was a time before them, right?” I asked.

“Four ages before them, actually. The Titans ruled the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is most certainly a misnomer. We are now in the Fifth Age under the current king.”

“So what was it like before the gods?”

Chiron pursed his lips. “Even I am not old enough to remember that, child. I was practically raised by Apollo and also trained by Artemis. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocently and free of all knowledge. It was only early in the reign of the current king that Prometheus brought fire to mankind that your species began to progress. Even then, Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. The king punished him severely, though the gods eventually warmed to humans and Western civilization was born.”

“But the gods can’t die now, right? I mean as long as Western civilization is alive, they’re alive. So, even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, yeah?”

Chiron sighed. “No one knows how long the Age of the West will last. The gods are immortal, yes, but then so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny.”

“Our destiny,” I said. “Assuming we know what that is.”

“Relax,” Chiron said. “Keep a clear head, and remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history.”

“Yeah, relaxed, I’m very relaxed,” I said.

When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron stood tall, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer camp send off by your typical centaur.

Argus drove us into the city without any major issues, but my vaporized algebra teacher made a reappearance on the bus. I then had to crash the bus to get all three of us out of there. Unfortunately, that destroyed our bags in the process. I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell Gordie I’d destroyed all his clothes except for the raincoat. Then we walked right into a diner that turned out to be run by Medusa. At least we got food out of it, and I proved I could live up to my name in one respect.

I impulsively packed Medusa’s head into a box and shipped it off to Olympus, already done with how much trouble we’d run into to solve their mess. Then after we started walking and I’d cooled off, I had to send off a quick prayer. I didn’t have a lighter or match or anything, so I squeezed my eyes shut tight and prayed as loudly as I could anyways. Dear Apollo, the package isn’t for you, sorry about that.

Then I smacked myself on the forehead because I’d called him dear Apollo again. He didn’t respond to laugh in my ear again so maybe he hadn’t heard it. Whether that was a good or bad thing, I couldn’t tell.

“You alright?” Grover asked.

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s find somewhere to camp.”

We set up for the night as best we could and slept in shifts. I spoke with Grover about the situation for a while before getting caught up in another dream where something was trying to pull me deep underground again, calling for me. I woke to the small breakfast Annabeth had prepared and a pink poodle found by Grover. We returned the poodle and used the reward money to buy tickets on a westbound train.

We managed a couple days without getting attacked. Annabeth spent a chunk of the time fingerloop braiding which meant I had to sit on the other end and hold it and check the tension for her. It was apparently super offensive to ask if it was an ancient Greek thing when it was obviously medieval. Then we made the mistake of checking out an architectural marvel because we were making such good time. We rode up to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and got attacked by Echidna and her baby chimera. I got bit by its snake end and lost Riptide out of the hole it had made in the side of the monument. The chimera prepared to breath fire on me, and I prayed, “Father, help me.”

Then I jumped out of the same hole I’d lost my sword through.

Chapter Text

Water caught me midair, dragging me down into the river without smashing me into a puddle. I had survived jumping out of an architectural marvel. I looked around at all the murky and polluted garbage filled water. It was definitely gross to be touching it, but I closed my eyes and as loudly as I could thought Thank you, Father.

A Nereid helped me find Riptide as she gave me instructions to meet my father in Santa Monica. I swam to the surface myself, and came out of the water dry. I skirted around the Arch and the police presence until I was tackled from behind by Grover. I told him and Annabeth about the chimera and my father’s message as we headed back towards the train.

We made it safely to Denver where Annabeth decided we should contact Chiron. We ended up catching Luke instead. He updated me on how everyone at camp was starting to pick sides for the upcoming war now that they’d found out about my father’s and Zeus’s feud, and I told him everything that had happened, including about my weird dreams. He asked me about the shoes he’d given me, and I lied.

As the mist started to evaporate, Luke said, “Tell Grover it’ll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—,”

The mist had dissipated when Annabeth and Grover returned. We headed to a diner for dinner, and just when I was on the verge of confessing to the waitress we didn’t have enough money to cover it, a motorcyclist with wrap around sunglasses and a black leather duster strolled it. I wanted to rip his head off after he sat down next to Annabeth and sent the waitress off.

“Know who I am, little cousin?” he asked.

“You’re Clarisse’s and Andrew’s dad,” I said. “The god of war.”

He only confirmed my ranking of Zeus’s immortal sons with Apollo squarely on top of the list when he said he would only help us out if we got his shield back for him. That sent us on a fun little side quest to a water park where we got a new set of clothes and a trip on a sabotaged ride that would have ended with us flattened on the concrete if not for Grover wearing Luke’s shoes.

I marched all the way back to Ares to shove his shield back at him. His help was one backpack with clothes, money, and oreos, a ‘humane’ zoo transport truck heading to LA, and the news that my mother wasn’t dead, but kidnapped. None of the animals were in very good condition, and we did what we could for them. Grover and Annabeth confirmed that they along with Luke had been the ones with Thalia when she’d made her last stand.

Grover started talking about how it was all his fault, and Annabeth said, “Stop it. No one blames you. Thalia didn’t blame you either.”

“What about Phoebus?” I asked. She was busy assuring Grover now, but she hadn’t been that nice when talking about Apollo back at camp. “Do you blame him?”

Grover nervously looked over to Annabeth. Her face had gone completely stony.

“Grover did everything he could,” Annabeth said. “Phoebus didn’t. Not until after it was too late.”

“Luke blames him, too?” I asked.

“I’ve never asked, but,” she tilted her head. She clearly thought he agreed with her. “You don’t blame him for your mother?”

I swallowed, my mouth feeling dry. My mother hadn’t turned into a tree, but she had been kidnapped right in front of him. “He couldn’t do anything. He told me so. I saw his arrows go through the Minotaur like they were nothing. He still got me and Grover to the Big House.”

It was way more than my own father had done for me.

Annabeth’s stony expression started to crack, the corner of her lips tugging downward. She turned away from me, refusing to speak anymore.

“Maybe we should all just get some sleep,” Grover suggested.

“Good idea,” I said, finding an out of the way spot to try and rest.

I had another dream. I saw Thalia before hearing that dark voice speaking with someone else I couldn’t recognize. The voice caught me eavesdropping and showed me where my mother was being kept in the Underworld.

Grover woke me, telling me the truck had stopped and they were coming to check on the animals.  We all hid, which was too easy for Annabeth with her cap. Annabeth banged on the side of the truck to distract the workers, and we freed all the animals before getting out of there.

We ended up at the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The bellhop gave us keycards and LotusCash cards and sent us on our way. It was amazing getting a luxury room and showering and eating some real food. We hit the game floor, and I noticed the guy next to me calling things groovy.

"What year is it?" I asked him.

"In the game?"

"No, in real life."

He paused. "1977."

Yeah, not exactly a good sign.

It took me a while to find Annabeth and Grover and pull them from their games. When we checked the date outside, we'd lost five days. We only had one left to complete the quest.

Annabeth piled us into a taxi and paid the driver with the casino card. I did my best to tell them about my dream, but I couldn't remember it clearly. Annabeth tried to game plan our entrance to the Underworld. We just didn’t have enough information to come up with something solid.

The taxi dropped us off at Santa Monica. I walked into the water, ignoring Annabeth's warnings about pollution. A shark helped me reach the drop off where the beach turned into the ocean proper. The Nereid met me there. She gifted me three pearls, telling me to smash them at my feet when I was in need. She rode a sea horse back into the depths, and I swam to shore.

We tried to take a bus to DOA records, but the bus driver nearly recognized me from police reports and we got off again. We wandered around searching for the address and ran into a group of rich white kids playing at being gangsters. We ran for shelter in the only open store down a side street called Crusty's Waterbed Palace.

The proprietor, a hairless seven foot tall man in the most 70’s business suit I’d ever seen, immediately started trying to get us to test out his beds. Grover dove right onto one, and Crusty shoved Annabeth onto another when ropes appeared to tie them down and stretch them out to exactly six feet.

I pretended to go along with his sales pitch and asked him to demonstrate the no wave functionality on one of his beds. He did so, and I trapped him with his own ropes before using Riptide to chop off his head. Then I cut Grover and Annabeth free.

There was a flyer with DOA Records' address, and we ran straight there. I walked up to Charon’s desk to get us passage into the Underworld. It only took a little bribing for him to go along with it. Then we had to find our way past Cerberus. Annabeth solved that problem by offering him the rubber ball she'd picked up from the waterpark and telling him that he was a good boy when he followed her instructions while Grover and I sneaked passed. She tossed the ball for his three heads to fight over and quickly joined us.

The Fields of Asphodel were packed with dead spirits, and we hid among them to avoid security. We spotted Elysium in the distance and continued on. We had nearly reached the palace when Grover's shoes went haywire, trying to drag him off. I froze when I saw they were dragging him into the pit from my dreams.

One of the shoes finally came loose from Grover's hoof, and Annabeth and I were able to catch him and hold him back from the edge. The other shoe tugged itself free and joined its twin down in the pit. We ran back from the edge of Tartarus even as a strong wind tried to suck us backwards. 

We entered the fortress of Hades, passing through a garden of mushrooms and luminous plants with jewels in place of flowers. An orchard of pomegranate trees stood in the center, and we carefully made our way around it before we were tempted to eat anything. We entered the palace itself, traveling down a hall which was guarded by soldiers wearing ancient Greek armor up to modern camouflage. The doors swung open to reveal the throne room.

It looked exactly as it had in my dream, but Hades was there. He was the fourth god I'd met, and the only one that really looked godlike with his  massive stature, black silk robes, and crown of braided gold.

I stepped forward and tried to make my requests to him. Instead, he went on a rant about Underworld infrastructure and not needing another war when he spilled that his helm was missing along with the bolt. He accused me of stealing both, and when I told him I hadn't, he told me to look in the backpack Ares had given me.

I pulled it off my back and unzipped it. Inside was a two foot long celestial bronze cylinder with spiked ends and thrumming with energy.

"You heroes are all the same," Hades said spitefully. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. Now, my helm, where is it?"

“Lord Hades, wait, this is all a mistake," I said as I put the pieces of the frame job together.

"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know the real reason you have brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."

He opened his hand, and my mother appeared at the steps in front of me, frozen in gold at the moment before the Minotaur strangled her to death. I reached out to touch her, but it was too hot to touch.

"Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go," Hades said.

I slowly moved my hand towards my pocket.

"Ah, the pearls," he said. "Bring them forth."

My hand moved against my will, showing them to the god.

"Only three," Hades said with a grin. "What a shame. Try to take your mother, and one of your friends will have to stay behind. Go on, choose, or give me the bolt and accept my terms."

I looked to Grover and Annabeth. "We were tricked."

"Decide, boy!" Hades snapped.

Grover and Annabeth argued over which of them I should leave behind, and instead, I gave them both a pearl. I looked over to my mother's frozen form. "I'm sorry, I'll be back. I'll find a way."

"Godling?" Hades asked, his smug expression fading.

"I'll find you helm, Uncle," I said. "I'll return it. Also, don't forget about Charon's pay raise and try to play with Cerberus, he likes red rubber balls."

"Percy Jackson—,"

"Now!" I shouted.

We smashed the pearls on the ground to a rush of green light and the scent of a sea breeze. Bubbles formed around us as undead soldiers and Furies flew at us. We floated up through the ceiling of the Underworld and burst out in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay. In the distance, LA was on fire, Hades was probably sending an army after me, there was less than a day to get the bolt to Zeus, and I needed to have a little chat with the god who'd tricked me.

The coast guard picked us up and dropped us off at the pier.

Ares was there waiting for us, grinning with his motorcycle and baseball bat at his side. “Hey kid, you were supposed to die.”

“You tricked me,” I said. “You stole the helm and the master bolt.”

“You’re not the only hero in the world who can run errands,” he said, “and you’re impeding the war effort. See, you’ve got to die in the Underworld for Old Seaweed to get mad at Corpse Breath for killing you, and if he has the bolt, Father will be mad at him, while Uncle’s still looking for this.”

He held up a ski cap which transformed into a bronze war helmet.

“Then we’ll have a real three way slugfest,” he said, grinning again.

“Why not just keep the bolt for yourself?” I asked. “Why send it to your uncle with me?”

Ares’s jaw twitched, brows drawing together. “Why didn’t I…yeah…with that kind of firepower…”

I exchanged a look with Annabeth.

Then Ares said, “I didn’t want the trouble. Better you were caught red handed.”

“You’re lying,” I said. “It wasn’t your idea. You only caught the thief, but you didn’t turn them over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let them go, to wait for another hero to complete the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around.”

The light behind the sunglasses grew brighter as Ares roared, “I take orders from no one! I don’t have dreams!”

“I didn’t mention any dreams,” I said.

“Let’s get back to the problem at hand, kid,” Ares said. “You’re not dead which needs to be fixed. Nothing personal.”

He summoned a boar, but I stepped into the surf. “Fight me yourself.”

“No direct involvement,” he said as his sunglasses began to melt from the heat of his eyes. “Sorry, kid. You’re not on my level.”

The boar charged me, and I sidestepped it the way I had the Minotaur. I called upon a wave to swallow it up an drag it down into the depths of the sea.

“You gonna fight me now or hide behind another pet?” I asked.

“Watch it, kid,” Ares snapped, his face purpling as his sunglasses dripped away. “I could turn you into—,”

“A cockroach, I’m sure. That’d save you from getting your godly backside whipped by a demigod kid, wouldn’t it?” I asked. “If I lose, turn me into whatever you want. If I win, the helm and bolt are mine and you leave.”

“How do you wanna get smashed?” he asked, flipping his baseball bat into his hand.

I raised Riptide.

“Classic it is,” he said, and the bat transformed into a xiphos.

He advanced, and I stood my ground in the surf. He made an obvious overhanded strike at my head, and I leaped into the air with the assistance of a wave. I slashed at him as I came down, but he caught my blade with his, deflecting it safely from his back.

He turned and thrust at me, forcing me onto dry land. I tried to sidestep back into the water, but he countered me, blocking my access. He continued to advance as I retreated, exactly as I had against Luke. I tried to close the gap in our reaches by moving in with a thrust, but Ares knocked my sword away before kicking me in the chest and sending me flying into a sand dune. I struggled to suck in air and get back to my feet.

Ares advanced on me, and I rolled to the side as he struck downwards. He cut into the sand. I darted for my sword, slashing blindly upwards towards his face, and Ares diverted the attack. I backed into the water now that he was no longer between it and me.

“Give up, kid. You’ve got no hope. I’m only toying with you,” he said.

I continued to retreat into the water, searching for an opening. I tried a few attacks, and Ares batted them away one right after another like they were nothing more than bothersome flies. The sea was pressing against my back, and the water came up to Ares’s thighs. I pushed against the tide, calling upon the tug in my gut that had exploded the toilet in Clarisse’s face.

I faked tiring, lowering my sword, and Ares stalked confidently forward. Ares drew back his sword, and I jumped, using the pressurized water to generate extra lift to leap over him as it smashed into the god’s face. I landed heavily behind him, and feinted towards his neck. He automatically parried even with water still dripping from his face. I dropped the point around his blade and thrust downwards, running my sword through his heel.

Ares roared, blasting the water away from both of us, and I would have stumbled back if I hadn’t had a death grip on Riptide. Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed down from Ares’s boot into the half dried sand. He ripped his foot away from me even though that likely tore up his ankle even further.

He turned towards me with his sword raised, and the sun brightened to the point I was almost blinded. Then like a blown bulb, the light faded away along with color and sound. Something cold and heavy lay upon the beach, slowing Ares’s movement and freezing the returning water. It dragged on me, lowering my sword hand.

Then it disappeared, and the sun was normal summer day bright.

Ares blinked at me. I heard police sirens behind me. The water rushed back up to shore. The sunlight warmed my back.

“You have made an enemy, godling,” Ares told me as he lowered his sword. “You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson.”

His body began to glow.

“Don’t look!” Annabeth shouted at me.

I turned away from Ares’s divine form, squeezing my eyes shut. The light died, and I chanced cracking my eyelids open. Ares was gone, and only the helm of darkness lay on the sand. I picked it up and walked towards Annabeth and Grover.

I heard the flapping of leathery wings and looked up to see the Furies in the air above me. The one who had been Mrs. Dodds landed before me.

“We saw the whole exchange,” she said. “It truly was not you?”

I tossed her the helm. “Return that to Lord Hades. Tell him the truth and to call off the war.”

She narrowed her eyes at me before she flew upwards to rejoin her sisters and then back towards the city and the entrance to the Underworld.

I made my way over to the Annabeth and Grover.

“Percy,” Grover said, “that was so incredibly—,”

“Terrifying,” Annabeth interrupted.

“Cool!” Grover shouted.

I had no energy left, and if we didn’t have a deadline, I’d have curled up into a ball right on the sand to nap.

“Did you guys feel that, whatever it was?” I asked.

They shared a look the nodded.

“Must’ve been the Furies,” Grover said.

I shook my head. They’d never pulled off something like that before. I looked at Annabeth, and she nodded once.

I took the backpack back from Grover. It still had the weight of the master bolt. “We have to get to New York by tonight.”

“That’s impossible,” Annabeth said, “unless we—,”

“Fly,” I said.

“Like in an airplane, which you were warned never to do lest the king strike you down from the sky, and carrying a weapon that has more destructive power than a nuclear bomb?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Pretty much exactly like that. Hey, do you know what Phoebus’s favorite offering is?”

Chapter Text

Blubbering to the media and playing into the kidnapping story journalists had created out of the car crash and going missing and then jumping out of the Gateway Arch scored us enough cash for three plane tickets to New York. None of us knew which food Apollo liked best so I stuck to burning strawberries before we entered the airport and far away from any cameras.

Dear Apollo, I have to fly back to New York if I'm gonna make it in time so can you please keep your dad from smiting me? Thank you!

Then I smacked myself in the forehead.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked.

"I called him dear again," I mumbled, dragging my hand down my face.

"You call Phoebus dear?" she asked, sounding offended.

"It's like a letter, it's supposed to be polite," I said. "Don't people say dear god praying to god? It can't be that weird."

"You're not praying to a god though," Annabeth said. "You're praying directly to Phoebus."

"Has he...said anything about it?" Grover asked.

I pressed my lips together.

Annabeth huffed and crossed her arms. "Did he tell you not to do that?"

"He said not to if he wasn't dear to me, but hey, if he keeps me from getting hit with lightning on the way back home, he's gonna be pretty dear to me," I said, holding up my hands.

She shook her head. "Let's get going before we miss our flight and Percy steps on any more gods’ toes."

"I was trying to be polite," I insisted as I followed her into the airport.

I nearly started hyperventilating going through security. The world's most powerful weapon sat in my backpack, and everywhere I looked I saw signs telling me how very, very illegal it was to bring weapons on a plane. I held my breath as the backpack went through the x-ray until Grover elbowed me hard in the back. They didn't even flag it for extra inspection. I grabbed the bag and speed-walked away before they could call me back for anything.

"You can slow down. We still have some time," Annabeth called after me. "You're not even going the right way."

I looked up to check the signs then turned the complete other direction. We found our gate. Grover and Annabeth sat in the first available set of three seats, but I sat down and immediately stood up again like I'd been zapped. There was no earthly way I could sit still and just wait for the flight. Taking off the backpack with the master bolt in it in an airport with a bunch of random mortals seemed like a terrible idea, too.

So I walked around and around the row of chairs Grover and Annabeth were sitting on. The walk up the side towards the windows was brutal as this was SoCal with the sun streaming straight into your eyeballs. At least the pacing had the side benefit of getting me out of holding the other end of Annabeth's fingerloop braid. Grover did the job instead.

Eventually, the staff called for boarding. We stood at the back of the line as we paid for cheap tickets in cash and therefore got the opposite of priority boarding even if we were unaccompanied minors. The backpack got heavier with every step I took. I would have taken another fight with Ares over getting in a metal tube about to be shot into the sky.

"Take deep breaths," Grover told me in his most soothing voice once we'd buckled into our seats.

I nodded, taking an exaggeratedly deep breath. Breathing underwater was easier. I still kept my hands clamped down tight on the arm rests and couldn't stop myself from jiggling my knee up and down. The other foot I had on the backpack under the seat in front of me so no one would be able to take it.

I held my breath during take off, the pressure of the acceleration heavy on my chest. Then the plane leveled off, and I gasped. One of the flight attendants spoke on me, handing over an extra puke bag. I just kept it in my hand, not wanting to lean forward to stick it anywhere else.

I checked the open window again and again for any forming gray clouds, listening for any rumble of thunder. But there was nothing. Only clear blue sky and warm sunlight as far as the eye could see.

As we descended, I finally let go of one armrest. I kept my hand on the belt buckle instead. Once I heard the ding to get up, I ripped it open. I snagged the backpack and sprinted up the aisle. One of the flight attendants snapped at me, but I ignored him. I shot up the gangway and skirted the line of people waiting to board the next flight. I spotted the first trashcan and stood over it, waiting to see if I was gonna puke. 

"You alright?" Grover asked me after I'd been staring into the depths of the trashcan for more than a few minutes.

"Yeah," I said, nodding and finally backing away from the trashcan. "I’m doing great. I'm not dead."

"Phoebus must not be too mad about the dear thing," Annabeth said as she led the way out of the airport. "It was sunny the whole way back."

Right. Greek gods. If it was sunny, it was because of Apollo. I'd prayed to him, and he'd watched over me. I resettled the backpack on my shoulders.

"Uh oh, cameras," Grover said, nodding to the windows by arrivals.

"I got it," Annabeth said, putting her Yankees cap on and disappearing.

After a few moments, I heard her go, "There, they're over by the frozen yogurt!"

The photographers started shouting and rushing to get over there, and Grover and I sneaked out behind them, joining the line for taxis. Annabeth joined us after a couple minutes, pulling off her cap casually like she'd always been there.

"You guys head to Camp Half-Blood," I told them as we approached the front of the line.

"But we're nearly there," Grover started at the same time Annabeth said "You can't go alone."

I shook my head. "It's my quest, my responsibility."

"Percy," Annabeth said, stepping forward.

"Just tell Chiron everything that happened," I said. "Someone has to tell him about the god of war as soon as possible. His kids need to know, too."

Whatever Annabeth thought of Andrew, he'd stepped up when Clarisse had come after me. He could handle cabin five.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes, evaluating my face, but I stared back as sternly as I could.

"You're right,” she said eventually. “Chiron and cabin five do need to know. We'll handle it."

Grover nodded.

"Thanks," I said. "Good luck."

I let them take the first taxi. I climbed into the second.

"Where to?" he asked me.

"The Empire State Building," I said.

He nodded and started driving. I clenched my hand in the fabric of my shorts to try and keep from jiggling my leg the whole ride. Finally, the driver parked, and I paid with almost all of the cash I had left.

I double checked the weight of the backpack before walking into the lobby, trying to act like I belonged there and I wasn't wearing salty days old clothes. I marched up to the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor."

"No such floor, kiddo," the guard said, barely looking up from his book.

"I need an audience with Zeus Olympios," I said, using the full epithet Darryl had taught me in class to refer to him as the king of the gods.

The guard finally looked up from his book. "Sorry?"

"You heard me."

I prepared to run before the guy called the straightjacket patrol as he stared at me. Then he said, "No appointment, no audience, kiddo. The king doesn't see anyone unannounced."

"Oh, I think he'll make an exception," I said, pulling the back pack from my shoulder and unzipping it.

The man stared at the cylinder in confusion then the color drained from his face. "That's not..."

"It is," I assured him. "You want me to take it out and—,"

"No!" he said, holding up his hand. Then he scrabbled around his desk for a keycard before handing it over to me. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure no one else is in the elevator with you."

"Thanks," I said and headed over to the elevator banks.

Aside from the tourists in line for the one elevator to go up to the roof, I couldn't see anyone else hanging around. I hit the up button and stepped on alone. Once the doors closed, I pushed the keycard into the security slot. The card disappeared, and a click of metal revealed a new button at the top labeled 600. I pressed it.

The elevator ascended, faster than any I'd been in before. Music began to play, boring inoffensive stuff grandparents probably listened to. There was no way in Hades Apollo had ever been inside the elevator.

Just before I started tapping out a rhythm to occupy myself, the elevator dinged and the doors opened. I stepped out then backed right back in.

A narrow stone walkway without anything resembling railings led the way out of the elevator with nothing but air on either side and New York miles and miles below me. This was some Indiana Jones penitent man type test that I could really do without. It was more than a little too much after surviving a plane ride.  

At the end of the path, marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud into the sky. I tracked the stairs and could not comprehend what I saw. I blinked a few times, but it was still there, the decapitated top of a mountain including a snow covered peak. Dozens of multi-level palaces, a city of mansions, with white columned porticos and gilded terraces clung to its side. Bronze braziers and glowing, flickering fires lit the city rather than electric or neon lights. Stone roads wound their way to the peak where the largest and grandest palace gleamed against the white snow and blue sky. Gardens dotted the city with olive trees and rosebushes among other plants I didn't recognize. An open air market teamed with colorful tents, an amphitheater far larger than our camp carved into the mountain, with a hippodrome nearby. Miles above New York sat an ancient Greek city that hadn't fallen into ruin.

And nobody knew about it. I certainly had never seen it before, and I'd lived here my whole life aside from boarding school.

I walked through Olympus in a daze, trying not to gape like a dumb tourist with their head craned back. I could spot the naiads as they giggled and waved at me like the ones in the lake at camp. I nodded to them and hurried on before they could find some body of water to drag me into for fun. Hawkers called to me in the marketplace as if I looked like I had any money or might belong in a place like this. No one looked worried for an impending war. If anything, they looked like they were in the middle of a festival.

I continued up to the main road to the palace at the peak. It was a reflection of the one in the Underworld in white rather than black. Hades had to have done it on purpose. He was forced to see it once every winter on the solstice then never again. Who wouldn't want to take a piece of this back with them?

I took the steps up into a neat and colorful central courtyard and followed the path into the throne room. It didn’t look anything like the European throne rooms you see on TV because however big those were, this was bigger. Grand Central Station was basically a broom closet in comparison. Massive columns supported a domed ceiling painted with the constellations that winked like they did in the real night sky.

Twelve thrones built for beings the size of Hades formed an inverted U that matched the cabins at Camp Half-Blood. A large circular hearth occupied the center of the room and protected a low burning fire. All of the thrones were empty except for two, the head throne on the right and the one to its immediate left. Both gods were in their giant forms, large enough to fill the massive thrones. Looking at them made my eyes sting slightly and my skin prickle like I was dry tinder waiting to catch sparks.

Zeus, Lord of the Gods, wore a dark blue pinstripe suit, and sat on a throne of solid platinum. A well trimmed beard shot through with gray adorned his proud and grim face. If he had been blond rather than black haired, he would have looked a lot like what Apollo could have looked like in a couple decades were he human.

The air crackled around him and smelled of ozone as I approached.

The god next to him had similar facial features, but he dressed as if he were a beachcomber from Key West with his leather sandals, khaki shorts, and coconut and parrot print button up shirt. He had a deep tan and scars over his hands. He had black hair and sea green eyes like me, but also crows feet like he’d smiled a lot over the years. His throne had the appearance of a deep-sea fisherman’s chair that swiveled and had a built in holder for a fishing pole. A bronze trident flickering with green light at the tips sat there instead of a pole.

I approached the fisherman’s throne, kneeling at his feet. “Father.”

I didn’t dare look up even as it felt like my heart was beating in my throat and my hands started to sweat.

“Should you not address the master of this house first, boy?” Zeus asked, his voice deep and rumbling, and despite all the power behind it, still not as cold as that voice from deep below ground. Had Lysander copied him when he’d shouted at us in the creek?

I kept my head down.

“Peace, brother,” Poseidon said. His voice was rougher than his brother’s and stirred up old, half formed memories; a warm glow, a large hand on my head. “The boy defers to his father. This is only right.”

“You still claim him then?” Zeus asked. “You claim a child whom you sired against our sacred oath?”

“I have admitted my wrongdoing,” he said, tone placid rather than rising to the bait. “Now I would hear him speak.”

I tried to swallow down a lump in my throat. Wrongdoing. That’s all I was? The evidence of a god’s mistake?

“I have spared him once already,” Zeus said. “He dared to fly through my domain. I should have struck him down for his impudence.”

“And risk destroying your own master bolt as well as your son’s fury?” Poseidon asked. “Let us hear him out, brother.”

“I shall listen,” he said, not that he sounded too happy about it. “Then I shall decide whether or not to cast this boy down from Olympus.”

“Perseus,” Poseidon said gently. “Look at me.”

I raised my head, but I couldn’t interpret his expression, saw no clear sign of fondness or approval. It was easier to take than if he smiled or tried to apologize or tell me he cared. I didn’t have to evaluate the honesty in any of it or fake that I accepted it. Was this why Luke had been so reluctant to talk about Hermes? Somehow, I couldn’t see Lysander’s first meeting with Apollo going like this.

“Address Lord Zeus, boy,” Poseidon commanded. “Tell him your story.”

I relayed the whole story to Zeus, unable to meet his eyes and struggling not to fidget. At the end, I removed the bronze cylinder from the backpack and laid it at his feet, ignoring the way it sparked in my hands.

Zeus studied me for several long, tense moments with only the crackling fire making any sound.

Then he opened his palm. The master bolt flew to him, and as he clenched his fist around it, the bolt surged with white electricity. Now it looked like a classic thunderbolt, a twenty foot javelin of arcing and sparking energy that made my hair stand on end.

“The boy tells the truth,” Zeus said, voice rumbling. “That Ares would do such a thing is most unlike him.”

“He is proud and impulsive,” Poseidon said. “It runs in the family.”

“Lord?” I asked.

“Yes?” Zeus asked.

“I don’t believe Lord Ares acted alone. Someone else, something else, came up with the idea.”

I described my dreams, the darkness on the beach that had frozen Ares and blocked out the sun. “In the dreams, the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Lord Ares hinted that he’d been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war.”

“You are accusing Hades after all?” Zeus asked.

“No,” I said, “I have been in the presence of Lord Hades. The voice, the force on the beach, it was different. The closest thing to it was the pit, the entrance of Tartarus. Whatever it is, it’s coming from down there.”

Poseidon and Zeus turned to each other. They spoke quickly and quietly to each other in ancient Greek. I only knew enough to catch one word; Father. Then Zeus held up his hand and all discussion ceased.

“We will speak of this no more,” Zeus said in English. “I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos to remove the human taint from its metal.”

He rose and stared down at me. His expression softened fractionally. “You have done me a service, boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much.”

“I had help, sir,” I said. “Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase.”

Zeus did not acknowledge them. Instead, he said, “Do not presume to fly again. My son’s favor will not protect you a second time. I will not find you here when I return.”

With a flash of lightning, Zeus disappeared, and the throne room echoed with thunder.

I was left alone with my father.

Poseidon sighed.

I awkwardly cleared my throat. “Sir, what was in that pit?”

“Have you not guessed?” he asked.

“Kronos,” I said quietly. “The king of the Titans.”

Poseidon stood from his throne, clasping his hands behind his back. “In the First War, Zeus cut our father Kronos into a thousand pieces just as Kronos had done to his own father, Ouranos. He then cast his remains into the darkest pit of Tartarus. Yet Titans cannot die anymore than we gods can. Whatever is left of Kronos is still alive in some hideous way, still conscious, still hungering for power and revenge.”

“He’s healing,” I said. “He’s coming back.”

Poseidon shook his head. “From time to time, Kronos has stirred and haunted men’s dreams and woken restless monsters, but to suggest he could rise from the pit is another thing entirely.”

“That’s what he intends, Father,” I said, stepping towards him. “I heard him say it.”

“You have completed your quest, child. That is all you need concern yourself with,” he said.

“But—,” I stopped myself. Continuing to argue wouldn’t help prove my point. I did not need to turn my father against me. “As…as you wish, Father.”

I caught the hint of a smile on his lips.

“Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it?” he asked.

“No…sir.”

“I must take some of the blame for that, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained,” he said, calling his trident to his hand before shrinking to the size of a normal man. “You must go, child, but know that your mother has returned.”

“My mother?” I asked, stunned.

“You will find her at home. Hades sent her when you recovered his helm. Even the Lord of Death pays his debts,” he told me.

“Do you…would you…” then I stopped myself. I could not ask Poseidon, god of the sea, to come and see my mother. What would I do? Load him into a taxi to take him to the Upper East Side with me? If he wanted to see my mother, he could have done so at any time. Not to mention the whole issue of Smelly Gabe who was likely parked in front of his poker table as if nothing had happened.

Poseidon allowed me a moment before he spoke again. “When you return home, you must make a choice. You will find a package waiting in your room.”

“A package?”

“You will understand when you see it. No one can choose your path for you. You must decide.”

I nodded, though I didn’t see how a package could have much effect on my life.

“Your mother is a queen among women,” Poseidon said wistfully. “I have not met such a mortal woman in a thousand years. Still, I regret that you were born, child. I have brought you a hero’s fate, and such a fate is never happy. It always brings tragedy.”

I tried to ignore the prick the words gave me, that my own father would tell me he regretted me. “I don’t mind, Father.”

“Not yet, perhaps,” he said. “But it was an unforgivable mistake on my part.”

“I’ll leave you then,” I said, bowing awkwardly. “I won’t bother you again.”

I made it only five steps when I heard, “Perseus.”

I turned back.

There was a different light in his eyes, a fiery kind of pride. “You did well, son. Do not misunderstand me. Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the sea god.”

I nodded, trying not to grin at the rush of pride the words brought.

“And don’t forget to thank your cousin,” he said.

I stared at him, confused. Wait. Poseidon and Zeus were brothers, and Apollo was Zeus’s son, making him my cousin. That’s not weird to think about at all.

“I won’t forget,” I promised.

Chapter Text

I walked back down from the palace. The nymphs and spirits had acknowledged me before, waved or called to me, but now they dipped their heads respectfully as I passed. A lot of the younger looking ones even bowed. No one had told me what to do in response so all I did was nod back.

Apollo waited for me at the top of the stairs down to the elevator. He sat on the top step, one foot on the one below, his back to the edge of the stone balustrade that ringed the city. He had his hands up at his mouth and made some bizarre bouncy sound I’d never heard before.

He pulled his hands away, and the noise stopped. “There you are.”

His voice was different here on Olympus than it had been outside of camp. He’d sounded like any old college kid then but it carried a richer timbre now, suggesting that the casual greeting hid a more powerful voice. If he shouted, he’d probably sound a lot like Lysander’s commanding voice.  

“Hi. What were you playing?” I asked as he stood.

He had jeans on again, but he had on an Oberlin t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up as well as sunglasses though they were more fashionable than Ares’s melted wrap-arounds. He still glowed faintly despite it being the middle of the day and not a stormy night.

“Jaw harp,” he said, holding up a little metal instrument that looked more like an old fashioned key than a harp.

“Thanks, by the way,” I said then clarified. “For helping with the plane flight.”

“It was no trouble, dear Perseus,” he said.

I cringed, and he smiled.

“But you should probably keep your feet on the ground from now on,” he advised me.

“Yep, definitely going to do that,” I said as even the thought of entering an airport made my stomach turn.

“I do have a question for you,” Apollo said, pushing his sunglasses up into his hair. “What exactly happened on the beach?”

“You mean with Ares?” I asked. “I fought him.”

“I saw that,” he said, a hint of frustration entering his tone. “I’m asking what stopped him.”

I swallowed. My father had essentially told me not to speak of it.

Apollo stepped forward, not threateningly, just searching as his gaze bored into my face. “I was unable to see what happened, so tell me what you experienced on the beach.”

Father had been right that I wasn’t very obedient. “I think it might have been Kronos. Time seemed to slow down when the god of war attacked me, and everything went dark and cold. It wasn’t the Lord of the Underworld.”

Apollo frowned, unnaturally bright blue eyes moving back and forth like he was reading, but I wasn’t sure he was really looking at me.

“No, it wasn’t,” he confirmed. “Only his helm can hide him from my sight above the Underworld.”

“So I’m right to be worried?” I asked.

He gave me this look, like he wanted to tell me there was nothing to worry about, but he couldn’t. I’d seen it on my mom’s face before. He put his sunglasses back over his eyes. “Maybe.”

That definitely meant yes be very worried. “Okay,” I said.

Apollo offered me a smile. “Say hi to my kids for me.”

They talked to him every day, but I still nodded. “I will.”

The light warped around him, and he disappeared leaving only the scent of laurel. I took one last look up the mountain before descending the stairs. The elevator doors closed on the glittering city and brought me back to ground level. I stepped out onto a dirty street that smelled of car exhaust and more faintly of garbage baking in the summer heat.

I caught a taxi that smelled of cigarette smoke and spearmint gum and gave the driver the address to my mom’s apartment. I climbed the creaky old stairs, and knocked on the worn door. The door swung open, and my mother was there, perfect and smelling of peppermint and licorice.

The haunted look on her face disappeared as she wrapped her arms around me. “Oh, Percy, thank the gods, you’re alright, my baby’s alright.”

She did the best she could to squeeze all the air out of my lungs. I hugged her back, letting her cry and run her fingers through my hair. I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing on her scent as I gripped her shirt tight so my hands wouldn’t shake.

Eventually, she pulled away, brushing my hair back from my face. “Have you done something different to your hair?”

“Sort of,” I said. Leaving my hair alone and not brushing it or toweling it during the quest had made it less frizzy and more curly. “Elias told me I needed to comb it.”

“Elias?” she asked.

I nodded. “He’s one of the goddess of beauty’s kids, and he’s got curly hair like me.”

She leaned down to kiss my forehead. “I feel like I’ve missed so much. Camp has been good?”

“Yeah, really good,” I said. “Darryl’s teaching me Greek, and Lysander is going to teach me guitar, and Luke’s teaching me how to sword fight, and Emmeline taught me to ride a horse, but I think she’s going to make me do fancier stuff than just normal riding. Also, horses talk to me, and Castor and Pollux sit with me because I’m the only one that doesn’t have any sibling, but I think it’s making Mr. D hate me, and I’m pretty sure Sammy, Aislinn, and Will are going to make me learn how to sing, but they’re like ten and already way better than me so I don’t think it’s going to go well.”

“Okay, okay, that’s a lot of people,” she said, nodding as she guided me into the apartment. “You’re going to have to explain to me who everyone is.”

“Oh, right,” I said and starting telling her who was whose kid and which kids were siblings, but I had to keep going back to add in people like when I brought up Andrew or Beckendorf and everyone else I’d met.

“Alright, I think I’ve got everybody,” she said. “You want to explain to me how you ended up a wanted criminal and on national television?”

“That was only for a little bit,” I said, holding up my hands close together. “At the end they changed it so that I was kidnapped, but I wasn’t kidnapped for real. I was fine, I swear.”

“Percy,” she said. “You were supposed to be safe at camp.”

“Well,” I said, dragging the word out. “I kind of had to go on a quest.”

“You had to go?” she asked.

“Yeah, because the master bolt got stolen, and when dad claimed me, the king thought he’d gotten me to do it, but I hadn’t done it, and the only way to prove that was to get the bolt back for him,” I said. “Which I did. So everything is fine now.”

Except for Kronos, but I didn’t need to tell her that part. Even if Zeus didn’t want to hear it, and Poseidon didn’t believe, Apollo would keep an eye out. It didn’t need to involve my mother.

“Uh huh, I see,” she said, nodding. “And how did that lead to you jumping out of the Gateway Arch?”

This wasn’t going any better than the times I’d gotten expelled and had to try to explain what had happened after the fact.

“Well, we were taking the train to Denver.”

“Uh huh.”

“Yeah, but there was a stop in St. Louis.”

“Okay.”

“And Annabeth is really, really into architecture.”

“Yes, she’s the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, right?”

“Yeah, that’s, like, why she’s into the architecture, and the Gateway Arch is like a marvel or whatever so we went to go see it for her,” I explained.

“I’ve got that,” she said.

“Yeah, so that’s why we were there, just a little pit stop.”

She nodded. “Now would you like to tell me how the giant hole ended up in the side of the Arch, and why you decided it was a good idea to jump out of it?”

I winced. “It wasn’t my fault?”

“And whose fault was it?”

“A chimera’s?” I tried. 

“So it was a chimera’s fault you decided to jump out of a building?”

I started sweating. It had been jump or get burned alive, but if I told my mother that, she’d get worried, and I was totally fine. “Yes?”

She raised an eyebrow at me.

“But it was fine, totally safe, I prayed to Dad first, and the water caught me, and it didn’t even hurt,” I said, putting my hands on my hips.

“So you prayed to your father, and that made jumping out of a building totally okay?” she asked.

It was a trick question. “No?” I tried.

She sighed. “Please, don’t jump out of buildings again. It’s very dangerous. You were lucky you were right next to a river, Percy.”

“Yeah, of course, I’ll never do it again,” I promised though I was definitely going to jump if it ever happened again. Landing in a river was way safer for me than getting flame broiled.

“And the shoot out?” she asked.

“It wasn’t a shoot out,” I said. “Nobody ever had any guns. The media made that up.”

“You still had a weapon, Percy,” she said. “What were you doing fighting a god on the beach?”

I cleared my throat. “He, uh, kinda set me up, so I had to fight him to clear my name and get everything back to who it belonged to. But I won, so it’s fine.”

“It is not fine that you decided to challenge a god to a fight, Percy.”

“I—,”

“Hey, Sally! The meat loaf done yet or what?” Smelly Gabe asked, interrupting me.

I glared down the hallway, but he hadn’t even come out to talk to her, just yelled from the living room. I scowled, safely from where he couldn’t see it.

My mom sighed, closing her eyes. “He isn’t going to be happy to see you, Percy. Don’t make him angrier, please. Come on.”

In the month I’d been gone, the apartment had turned into Gabeland. Beer cans were littered everywhere, empty trays of microwave meals and ripped bags of fast food layered on top. Gabe still sat at the table playing poker as if nothing had changed. He pulled a double take when he saw me, and his cigar fell from his mouth.

“You got some nerve coming here, you little punk,” Gabe snapped. “I thought the police—,”

“He’s not a fugitive after all,” my mom said. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

Gabe looked back and forth between us, and his expression didn’t lift in the slightest. “Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, now I gotta call the cops.”

“Gabe, no!”

“Did you just say no?” he asked. “You think I’m gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro.”

“But—,”

He raised his hand, and my mother flinched.

I nearly saw red. He’d hit her, he had to have to make her flinch at the sight of his hand. I stalked forward, my hand going for my pocket. I pulled out Riptide.

“What’re you gonna do, punk?” Gabe asked. “Write on me? You touch me, I’ll make sure you’re locked up for life, you understand?”

I took another step forward, and something in Gabe’s expression shifted.

“Look, I’ll be nice, kid,” Gabe said. “I’ll give you five minutes to get your stuff and clear out. After that, I’m calling the cops.”

“Gabe!” my mother pleaded.

“He ran away,” he snapped. “Let him stay gone.”

I couldn’t uncap Riptide. The blade would do nothing to him, human as he was, no matter how disgusting. I might just stab him with the pen form anyways.

My mother grabbed hold of my arm, turning me back towards her. The worry in her face made me pause.

“Come on, Percy, please, let’s just go pack up your room,” she pleaded.

I let her pull me away, but I sent one last glare Gabe’s way, baring my teeth. The disturbed look he wore was gratifying.

She led me down the hall and opened the door to my room. It had become a dumping ground for Gabe’s things, extra car batteries, rotting bouquets of sympathy flowers, even more empty cans of beer.

“Gabe is just upset, honey,” she said, wringing her hands. “I’ll talk to him later. I’m sure it’ll work out.”

“Don’t defend him,” I snapped then took a step back as she flinched from me this time. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s not going to work out, not so long as Gabe’s here. I’m not going to let him treat you like that.”

“I can—I’ll just take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there’s another boarding school you can—,”

“Mom,” I said quietly.

She looked away from me. “I’m trying, Percy. I just…I need some time. Things have changed so quickly.”

The last month had been no time at all to her down in the Underworld.

“I’m not going to let him stay here and keep treating you like that,” I said.

“That’s not your decision—,”

She cut off as a package appeared on my bed. The battered cardboard box was the right size to fit a basketball. The address on the mailing slip was in my own handwriting. In blocky all capital letters, someone had written RETURN TO SENDER on it. On one of the sides, I spotted a second message in the same black marker, printed in about the nicest handwriting I had ever seen. ‘Thanks for not including me — Apollo’

“That’s from Phoebus?” my mom asked, pointing to the message.

“No, I think it’s from father,” I said then faced her. “Mom, do you want Gabe gone?”

She sighed, placing a hand against her forehead. “Percy, it isn’t that simple. I—,”

“Yes, it is,” I said. “Just tell me. That asshole has been hitting you. Do you want him gone or not?”

She stared at me, worry on her face. Then her expression hardened. She nodded, almost imperceptibly.

“Yes, I do,” she said quietly. “I’m trying to get up the courage to tell him, but you can’t do this for me. You can’t solve my problems, and I don’t want you doing anything that would get you arrested.”

I looked over at the package. In the old stories, the hero would have taken that package apart and set the head in the center of the poker table. Or they would take it into their own hands, even Apollo had defended his mother Leto from a giant attempting to assault her. Gabe would deserve it.

But hero’s stories ended in tragedy. Poseidon had told me that, as had all the lessons I’d had so far in class with Darryl. Could I really do this? A month ago, I wouldn’t have even considered it. Now, however…

“I can do it,” I told her. “One look inside this box, and he’ll never bother you again.”

She looked at the package then her eyes went wide. She faced me, but stepped away. “No, Percy, you can’t.”

“Poseidon called you a queen,” I said. “He said he hadn’t met a woman like you in a thousand years.”

She blushed. “Percy—,”

“You deserve better than this, Mom,” I insisted. “You should go to college, get your degree, write the novel you always wanted to. If you still wanna get married after that, you should find a better guy, someone who treats you right. Get a nice house that won’t be trashed by some asshole. You don’t need to protect me by staying with Gabe anymore. Let me get rid of him for you.”

She sniffed, wiping a tear from her cheek. “You sound so much like your father. He offered to stop the tide, once, to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea. He thought he could solve all my problems with a wave of his hand.”

“What’s wrong with that?” I asked. “If I can help you, shouldn’t I?”

She searched my face. “I think you’re enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can’t let a god take care of me, or my son. It’s not your job to take care of your mother. I have to…find the courage on my own. I have to make the choice, make the change.”

I met her gaze, listening to the sounds of poker chips, swearing, and whatever game was playing on TV in the living room. I nodded.

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll leave the box. If he threatens you…”

She paled, but she didn’t back away again, only nodding. “Where are you going to go?”

“Half-Blood Hill,” I said. “I’d have gone anyways. I need to talk to Annabeth and Grover, and I have a message for Phoebus’s kids.”

“Are you going to stay for the summer or, you know, permanently?” she asked.

I glanced towards the living room then turned back to her. “I guess that depends.”

She studied me again, then she nodded. She finally approached me. She tucked my hair behind my ear before settling her hands on both sides of my face. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You’ll be a hero. The greatest of all of them.”

I nodded, and she let me go. I took one last look around the room. There was nothing left here that was worth taking with me. I headed for the front door, my mother following me.

“Leaving so soon, punk?” Gabe called after me. “Good riddance.”

I turned back towards him, clenching my fists, telling myself not to do anything impulsive. How could I leave my mother with this man?

“Hey, Sally, what about that meat loaf, huh?” he asked.

I caught the flash of anger on my mother’s face, the way she clenched her jaw.

“The meat loaf is coming right up, dear,” she said, her tone falsely sweet. “Meat loaf surprise.”

Then she gave me a wink before telling me goodbye.

I left the apartment trusting that my mother would handle this herself. She had kept us both alive for twelve years after all. 

Chapter Text

I really really didn't have any money left to get to camp and had to use public transportation. It meant I had to walk the last portion, but that wasn't any more dangerous than anything else I'd been doing for the past week. I arrived back long after the sun had set, and as soon as I crested the hill, I spotted Grover and Annabeth waiting on the porch of the Big House.

"He's here!" Annabeth shouted before jumping the railing and running towards me. Grover raced down the steps to follow her.

Annabeth launched herself at me, nearly knocking us both to the ground. "You're not dead."

"Nope, still here," I said, patting her back.

She gave me a squeeze then quickly pulled out of the hug. She cleared her throat and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Good."

"Percy!" Grover shouted, throwing his arms around me. "You made it back! I'm so happy you're alive!"

"Percy!" someone else shouted and that call was much more worried.

Grover backed away to let Lysander and Darryl through. Lysander guided me towards the light from the windows of the Big House the same way he had in the forest. He looked over my face carefully, brushing back my hair to check my forehead.

"Are you alright? No injuries? Venom? Cursed objects? Any weird unexplained aches or pains?" he asked, turning my head one way then the other before moving on to checking my hands.

"No, I'm fine just need a super long shower and to go to sleep," I said. "Also, your dad says hi."

Lysander paused then said. "I talked to him at dinner."

"I know," I said with a shrug. "He told me to tell you anyways."

Lysander shook his head like Apollo was being ridiculous, but he didn't seem upset about it.

"Alright, let me through," Darryl said, elbowing Lysander aside. "You alright, Percy? I realized after you left that I didn't tell you that much about how to talk to the gods so that’s my bad. No one got offended, did they?"

I shook my head. "I mean, the king, a little, but my dad covered for me."

"Okay, good, that's not so bad," she said then she hugged me, too.

It was the most people who'd ever hugged me at one time.

"It's late," she said as she released me. "We'll call it a night for now and handle everything else in the morning, okay?"

"Yeah," I said with a nod.

“Wait, do you have any soap?” she asked. “Annabeth said you accidentally blew up your stuff on a bus or something like that?”

“It was the Furies fault,” I said.

“I heard, but that doesn’t change that the soap’s still gone,” she pointed out.

“I’ll grab him stuff,” Lysander said. “I’ll meet you at the bathroom, Perce.”

He patted my shoulder as he passed me then jogged towards the cabins. Chiron had come out of the Big House at some point while we’d been talking.

“It’s good to see you returned in one piece,” Chiron said, offering me a smile. “You did better than anyone could have expected. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling back at him.

“Get some rest,” he told me. “Everything else can be dealt with in the morning.”

I opened my mouth to agree and embarrassingly yawned. “Sorry,” I said, putting a hand over my mouth.

“It’s alright,” he said. “Have a good night.”

“Night,” I told him.

I walked with Darryl, Annabeth, and Grover towards the cabins and bathroom. Then Darryl and Annabeth split off to head to cabin six as Grover headed to the forest while I met Lysander outside the bathrooms.

“I grabbed pajamas and a towel for you, too,” he said, raising the bundle he held. “I wasn’t sure what you’d have left over.”

“They’re not Gordie’s, are they?” I asked. Only his raincoat had survived since I’d been wearing it on the bus.

“No, they’re mine so they’re gonna be a little big,” he said. “Hope that’s alright.”

“It’s fine,” I told him.

I took the bundle from him and headed into the showers. The warm water felt amazing, as did scrubbing off all the dirt and grime. Lysander’s body soap was lemon scented, but his shampoo and conditioner were both herbal. I zoned out at some point while rinsing off, staring at the tiles and blinking slowly. Nothing was coming after me. There was no war. My mother was back. She would handle Gabe.

I shook myself back to wakefulness. I turned off the water and patted myself dry with the towel though I made sure to be careful with my hair rather than scrubbing it. Lysander’s cotton pajama pants thankfully had draw strings so I could tie them tight enough to stay on me. The shirt was extra soft, and he’d even been nice enough to give me a sweatshirt which would be nice for sleeping in cabin three’s cool interior. I packed my dirty clothes inside the backpack to keep them separate from Lysander’s things.

I walked outside and found Lysander sitting on the concrete steps and whistling a tune I didn’t recognize. He stopped when I sat down next to him.

It took me a couple tries, but I eventually got out, “Do you have a stepfather?”

“No,” Lysander said, shaking his head. “My mom basically decided to have us because she didn’t want to completely lose out on having her own children, but she didn’t really want to get married. Getting married meant less time for her work and less time for us so she didn’t.”

“She wasn’t worried about monsters getting you?”

Lysander looked down at me, watching me. Then he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Of course, she was. She’s my mom. We found out about my healing from an attack. That really freaked her out, but it meant I could protect Rosie.”

I nodded. Lysander waited.

“My mom married a man so his scent would cover mine,” I curled my hands into the kangaroo pocket of the borrowed hoodie. “But he’s awful.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, squeezing my shoulders, and it sounded like he really meant it.

“I saw him today. I wanted to kill him,” I confessed, staring down at my knees. “I could have done it.”

I heard Lysander take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “I understand.”

I snapped my head up to stare at him. Why was he not upset with me or shocked or horrified? Could he really understand? His mom hadn’t ever married anyone, good or not.

But he looked at me like he was just interested in hearing what I had to say, not acting like I was some dangerous freak like all of my teachers always did and basically any other adult who wasn’t my mom. 

I ducked my head. “She didn’t want me to. She wanted to handle it herself.”

“I get it, I do,” Lysander said slowly. “Annabeth and Grover told us how you wanted to rescue your mother from the Underworld, but she’s her own person with a right to make her own choices with her relationships. Are you really treating her any better if you take that away from her?”

I grimaced. I looked out at the darkened cabins ahead of us. “I’m not going back home if he’s still there.”

“That’s okay,” he said quietly.

I cautiously looked up at him. “Really?”

“Yeah. It’s her relationship, but it’s also not right to let you be collateral to that relationship,” he said. “You didn’t get to decide if you wanted this man in your life. I know we’re not perfect here, the hellhound really proved that, but if you’d rather stay here, you’re more than welcome to.”

I took a deep breath in, picking at the knee of the pajama pants he’d given me. “I want to stay.”

“Okay,” he said, rubbing my back. “You’ll stay with us, and we’ll keep an eye out for whoever the summoner is.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course.”

He stood first, offering me a hand up. He walked me to cabin three, and I passed all the soap bottles over to him before he headed off to cabin seven. I kicked off my shoes, dropped the battered backpack at the foot of my bunk and collapsed onto the mattress. I pulled the cover over me and fell into a deep sleep.

In the morning, Grover, Annabeth, and I had to meet with Chiron at the Big House to go over what had happened. Grover and Annabeth had told him a lot, but they hadn’t been there when I met with the Nereid for example. I was also given everything from the order that Emmeline had made before I left so I wasn’t totally without clothes. Sammy, Aislinn, and Will swarmed me once I got outside, asking about every little detailed about what had happened. I had to downplay a lot.

I also had to explain to Gordie about the backpack when I returned the raincoat. “I’m really sorry.”

“You exploded my backpack,” he snapped. “I figured you might lose a few things because that happens, but you blew up everything!”

“I really didn’t mean to. I was trying not to die,” I said.

He glared at me. Then he pointed his finger in my face, “I’m never letting you borrow my nice socks ever again.”

Then he stormed off back to cabin seven with his raincoat.

“The socks are what he’s mad about?” I asked.

Sammy nodded. “Socks are really important.”

“Are they, though?” I asked.

“His wool socks are the best,” Aislinn said.

“We all steal them,” Will added.

My socks had always been whatever came cheapest in a twelve pack. “Sure, okay, whatever.”

That evening, Lysander found me before I headed up to the pavilion for dinner. “You don’t have someone else to do this, so I get the honors.”

He held up a laurel wreath, like the kind I’d seen on Olympic athletes. “I have to wear that?” I asked, pointing to it.

“Yep, we’ve got a whole feast to celebrate your success, and you’ve got to keep it on the whole time,” he told me.

“Fine,” I said, letting him put it on my head.

“And then after dinner, you get to burn your burial shroud,” he said with a smile.

“My what?” I asked.

“Your shroud.”

“I heard, I meant why do I have one?” I asked.

“Because the other cabins didn’t think you guys were going to make it,” he said. “Darryl couldn’t even keep the rest of cabin six from making one for Annabeth.”

“That’s messed up,” I said. “Wait, if I don’t have a cabin, and you didn’t do a shroud for me, who did?”

Lysander grinned.

It was cabin five. Cabin Five had made a shroud for me. Annabeth’s was a nice gray silk shroud with embroidered owls so like at least her siblings had showed they cared about her even if they’d thought she was gonna die.

Andrew, however, plopped a bedsheet in my hands and slapped me on the back so hard I had to take a step forward. “There you go, baby shark.”

“My name’s not baby shark,” I grumped as I unfolded it.

Someone had painted a blue shark in the middle of the sheet then put a red x over its eye and a pink tongue hanging out of its mouth.

“Ain’t it beautiful?” Andrew asked.

I looked at it skeptically. “You’re definitely not Phoebus’s kids.”

He barked out a laugh.

Annabeth, Grover, and I led a procession down to the bonfire, and I gleefully tossed the bedsheet on the flames. It had a hard time burning the shark.

“It’s such a shame we have to waste your cabin’s work and can’t bury you in that,” I said as Annabeth’s shroud quickly went up in smoke.

She punched me in the shoulder. “Shut up.”

“It’s just a joke,” I said, holding up my hands and backing away.

She rolled her eyes.

Cabin seven brought out more instruments for sing along this time. Sammy, Aislinn, and Will wouldn’t let me go sit up in my usual corner. Instead I had to sit down in front with them and Annabeth even though I still didn’t know the songs that well.

Mr. D gave a speech between songs. “Yes, yes, the little brat didn’t get himself killed, and now he’ll have an even bigger head. Huzzah for that. Don’t stay up all night.”

Michael mimicked a talking puppet hand behind Mr. D, and there were a few giggles from the crowd. Mr. D turned back to look at him at his drum kit, and Michael quickly lowered his hand and grinned at Mr. D.

“Watch yourself, boy,” Mr. D warned him before leaving us to the celebrations.

The sing along did go on for longer than normal. Even the younger kids stuck around, but they were completely faded by the end of the night. Rosalind had to bring Lysander’s guitar back to the cabin as he was carrying Aislinn who claimed she was too tired to walk.

Someone caught my arm as I was heading back to my cabin. I turned around to see Cam and Jessa.

“We wanted to say we were sorry,” Jessa said.

“Yeah, it was kind of a lot after capture the flag,” Cam said. “There’s not supposed to be any kids like you—,”

“And you got attacked by that hellhound,” Jessa said.

“We thought it was the gods,” Cam admitted quietly. “That the king was mad at you for being here.”

I frowned at them. Had Luke not told them that we thought it was one of the counselors (or maybe Bea but probably not) who had summoned the hellhound? Whether or not he had, I’d nearly lost my lunch flying in a plane so I got staying far, far away from Zeus’s bad side.

“It wasn’t the king,” I told them. “We don’t know who did it yet, but it wasn’t him, just someone from inside the camp. I’ve seen the king myself. I’m not in trouble.”

Jessa nodded. “Yeah, we kinda figured once you came back.”

“Sorry,” Cam said.

I looked between the both of them and their wary expressions. “I get it. I wouldn’t want to get attacked by a hellhound either.”

Cam and Jessa shared a look before turning back to me. “So, we’re okay?”

“Yeah, we’re okay,” I said.

Cam smiled. “Cool, we’ll see you for Greek tomorrow?”

I nodded. “Definitely.”

They waved goodbye to me as I headed on towards cabin three.

Things were different at the next class. It wasn’t just Cam and Jessa who treated me differently. Nobody watched me like I was about to get zapped by lightning. Cam and Jessa talked to me during breaks which meant eventually Kyle did, too. Darryl didn’t send me any worried looks since I wasn’t camped out at my desk.

But I still had activities with cabin seven in the afternoon. We had wrestling, and I got paired up with Michael even though Gordie was closer to my size because I was the newbie. Michael still squashed me. Chores were at least a mercy because we were doing the canoes again which were super easy for me.

After we finished, Beckendorf said, “Here.”

He tossed something to me, and I caught it. I turned it over. “You got me a watch?”

“I didn’t buy it, I made it,” he told me. “Andrew asked me to.”

I gave him a suspicious look. “Why would Andrew give me a watch?”

“Well, if you press the face,” he said, gesturing towards it.

I pushed the glass face of the watch down. Instead of the face coming back up, a series of metal plates shifted outwards to create the convex circular shield Greek warriors used though not quite as large or as thick as the real ones. “That makes way more sense,” I said.

“I’m not good enough to make it come open and have a design, but it’ll do the job if you’re in a pinch,” Beckendorf admitted.

“You’ll get there,” Helga said from behind him. “Percy, if you want an upgrade, just come back next summer. He’ll be able to do it then.”

Beckendorf smiled at Helga.

“Sure,” I said since it seemed important to him. “Thanks.”

“Press the side of the back of the face to collapse it again,” he said, pointing to the watch part of the shield.

It took me a second to find the small button, and it closed just as quickly as it had opened. “Sweet.”

“When do I get one?” Castor asked.

“When you go on a quest,” Beckendorf said without hesitation.

“Aw, man,” he said. “Dad’s never going to let us go on a quest.”

“Really?” I asked.

“I know, it’s crazy that our dad actually cares about our safety or something,” Pollux said.

“So we never get to do any of the cool stuff,” Castor said.

“At least until we’re eighteen,” Pollux said then held up a finger. “But that is down from twenty one.”

“He wanted you to be able to legally drink first?” Beckendorf asked.

“Yeah, said we weren’t real adults until then even though you’re legally an adult at eighteen,” Castor said. “It took two years to convince him that being able to vote and full citizens made us real adults.”

“And the application of the beard argument,” Pollux said with a sharp nod.

“The beard argument?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s a marker of adulthood for men which is why Uncle Phoebus can’t ever grow one,” Castor said.

“But it is possible to grow one before you’re eighteen even if it’s not a good one,” Pollux said. “So if we say a beard makes us an adult…”

“Then suddenly eighteen and being able to vote looks like a much better option,” Castor said with a smile.

“Wow,” Beckendorf said. “You really are kind of devious.”

“Thank you,” Castor said, taking a bow.

“Wait, Phoebus really can’t grow a beard?” I asked.

“Nope, not even peach fuzz,” Pollux said. “I’m ahead of him, and all I can grow is a terrible mustache.”

He pet the top of his lip like there was anything there to be seen.

“It has to be so difficult to be eternally pretty and young,” Castor said sarcastically.

It actually did sound like it kinda sucked though, especially if your dad had a beard as nice as Zeus’s. Who wanted to look like a kid when you were clocking several thousand years?

“You really want to go on a quest that bad?” I asked instead of mentioning that.

Castor and Pollux shared a look.

“It’s not so much that we want to go on a quest,” Castor said. “It’s not like we don’t know they’re dangerous.”

“But we’ve trained, and who wants to be the bench warmer when important things happen?” Pollux asked. “You got to go out and stop a war before it started.”

“All we could do was sit here and pray,” Castor said.

“It sucked,” Beckendorf said. “Like a lot.”

“I’m hoping it doesn’t happen again,” I said. “The next time something comes up, you guys are totally free to go in my place.”

Chapter Text

The next afternoon, I finally got to wear the horse back riding clothes Emmeline had ordered for me. She looked me over with a critical eye then nodded. "Better."

She walked me through the steps of getting Nancy ready to ride again, and I did my best to commit them to memory. It was way easier getting up onto her back with the right boots. No treads meant my foot didn't get stuck on the stirrup, and I could more easily swing my leg over. We started off with the lead rope, but Emmeline took it away a lot sooner.

She nodded approvingly when I came to a stop with Nancy at the end of the session. "You're a natural. We might try something more advanced next time.”

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes."

Congratulations, my lord Nancy told me.

I couldn't stop smiling, even when I nearly fell to the ground after dismounting.

Elias came back first from the trail riding again. "Your hair looks better. How are the products working out?"

I self consciously fingered my curls, pulling one at the front of my head straight. My hair felt way better than it has before, even right after getting a hair cut, and combing was way easier than brushing. A lot of it even formed proper rings rather than just looking like waves, but not all of it. They weren't perfect and shiny like Elias's either.

"I'm not sure I'm using everything right," I admitted.

"Okay, so tell me what you're doing and we'll go from there," he said.

I told him, and he gave me a few tips to try out.

"You should probably also get a trim when you can. It's too bad Tracy isn't here anymore," he said, sighing.

"Who's Tracy?"

"One of my older sisters," he said. "She's older than Emmeline so she's off becoming a hair dresser and couldn't come back for the summer anymore. She doesn't really need to learn anything if you ask me because she could cut all our hair and we've got every hair texture known to man, she knows all the protective styles, and she even dyed Sarah's hair rainbow."

"Rainbow?" I asked.

Sarah was around Elias's age, and right now her afro was a deep purple.

"Yeah, it was super cool, the colors weren't muddied at all," Elias said enthusiastically. "She even dyed it cotton candy one time. She's braver than me, though. I get too worried that the bleach will mess up my curls."

"Bleach messes up curls?" I asked.

"Yeah, it changes your curl pattern. Sarah's used to be even tighter, but it's still pretty good now," Elias said.

"So I shouldn't bleach my hair?" I asked. I hadn't been planning to, but my hair was black, and deep purple was a lot cooler than plain old, natural black.

Elias shook his head. "Not right now. You should focus on getting used to taking care of your curls. You at most need a trim for your split ends."

"Okay," I said even if a trim was a lot less fun than a full dye job.

That afternoon's chores was mucking out the stables with the help of the satyrs. Being able to actually talk to the horses meant I could move safely move them out of the way faster than anyone aside from the satyrs. It was kind of cheating though. None of the horses liked the Hephaestus kids since they smelled like smoke. They handled pretty much everything outside the stalls that they could. Castor was at least decent with the horses, but Pollux was skittish around them which made them nervous in turn.

"You need to relax," I told him.

"It's twice my size," he complained and then pointed at me. "And that one's trying to eat you."

"Maude," I complained as she nibbled at my head.

You are doing excellent work, my lord she told me.

I sighed and told Pollux, "She's just being nice."

"Well excuse me if I don't want to be eaten," he said. "There are horses that eat human flesh, you know."

"None of these ones do," I argued.

The satyrs ended up having to pick up Pollux's slack. Helga told them thank you and glared at Pollux until he did the same.

The day after that, cabin seven was back to archery. I had lost whatever ability I had to shoot from Lysander's lesson over the course of the quest. I braced myself for the criticism or the complaining or being called stupid.

"Alright, try again," Lysander said. "We’ll go from the top.”

"Okay," I said.

Lysander walked me through all the steps to having good form again. He even told me good job when I hit the target the first time even though I'd done it before and should have been able to do it from the start of this session.

"Good work today," he told me when I was putting the practice bow back. I didn't even try to dodge when he ruffled my hair.

"Thanks," I said.

Everyone else had to ruffle my hair after that, but at least it didn't get as floofy at the end this time. I could pretty easily finger comb it into being half decent, too.

Sammy, Aislinn, and Will joined us on the way back to the cabins, telling us about the art they made since group A had had arts and crafts for their afternoon activity. Without really noticing, I ruffled Will's hair like all his siblings had then froze.

If Will noticed, he didn't say anything, just kept telling me about the really cool robot he had drawn. I quickly tried to fix his hair and comb it back down.

"Stop trying to fix my hair," Will huffed, ducking away from me. "You're worse than Mom."

"Sorry," I said, quickly pulling my hand back.

I caught Lysander chuckling even though he had a hand over his mouth trying to muffle it.

"Don't worry about it, Perce," he told me. "When he starts caring about his hair and things like that, he'll figure it out for himself."

"Alright," I said, stuffing my hands into my pockets.

The following day, cabin seven was back to sword fighting.

"Heard you beat the god of war," Luke said with a grin. "You're gonna have to show me how you did it."

"I had help," I said, taking a half step back. "I was in the ocean at the time."

"Then I guess there's still a few things I can teach you," he said. "Let me get everyone else set up then we'll go."

Luke did teach me a few new things when he got back to me, but he spent way more time on sparring. He seemed more aggressive than before. I had to pay attention to where I was putting my feet when I retreated, and his hits actually hurt when he struck me.

"Alright," Lysander when there was a lull in the action. "I think it's time for a break."

"Don't be such a worry wart," Luke said as he straightened out of his stance. "He fought a god and won."

Lysander scowled. "That doesn't make it right to push him like this in practice. He barely knows more than the basics."

"He's fine. Right, Percy?" Luke asked me.

I didn't really have enough breath to answer him. I nodded. He was right. I'd fought a god. I could take it. Luke shifted into his stance again.

"Back off," Lysander said, his voice suddenly a lot more like Apollo's on Olympus. "He needs a break."

Luke shot Lysander an annoyed look. "Just because you can put on a scary voice doesn't mean you're in charge."

"Trust me," Lysander said, taking a step towards him. "I'm not putting it on."

Luke's frown deepened. Then he took a step back, relaxing his posture again. "Fine," he said, tone light. "We'll all take a break."

Lysander stared him down for another moment before nodding. "Let's get some water, Perce," Lysander said, and the edge to his voice was gone.

I nodded and went straight for the water cooler. I drank two cups, chugging them both.

"You can stop for today," Lysander said. "You don't need to prove yourself over and over again just because you fought the god of war."

"But I did do it," I said, still breathing heavily. "This is just practice."

"The point of practice is improvement," he said. "You get nothing if you overextend yourself and end up hurt. Do you understand?"

"Sure," I said.

He shook his head then turned to Luke. "You wanna keep sparring, I'll be your partner."

"Whatever you want," Luke said, still trying to be nice and smile even after Lysander had told him off. "It's your guys's lesson."

"I can pair up with Percy," Gordie said.

"You're not gonna stab me for blowing up your stuff, are you?" I asked.

Gordie looked at me like I was crazy "What kind of school do you go to?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I got expelled out of the last one."

"Oh boy," Rosalind said with a sigh.

I turned to her to tell her it wasn't that bad, that a lot of it had been defending Grover, but she wasn't looking at me. She was watching Luke and Lysander. They had already started swinging their practice swords, and they looked like they might actually want to stab each other. Luke clearly had the better technical skills, winning every bind, defending every attack, but Lysander was slippery. He could turn his body out of the path of Luke's sword no matter what angle he came at him from.

"Woah," I said.

"Hey," Gordie said, waving his free hand in front of my face. "We're practicing."

"Right," I said.

I tried to ignore the sounds of Luke and Lysander sparring as I practiced the drills with Gordie. They weren’t as fun as sparring, but they hurt less.

When I went to shower later on, I found large, purple bruises in a lot of places. They hadn't hurt that bad when I got them, but it definitely took longer than before to wash them off. If Lysander had caught sight of them, I was sure he'd go back to yell at Luke again.

That weekend, I headed to cabin seven to start guitar lessons with Lysander.

"I wanna learn, too," Will said when he heard us talking.

"Me, too!" Sammy said, rushing over to join us.

"I wanna learn harp," Aislinn said, crossing her arms.

"We will learn harp later," Lysander said. "Or you can go bother Rosie about it."

Aislinn glowered at Lysander to the best of her chubby face's ability then stomped over to the girl's side of the cabin.

"Okay, step one, picking out guitars," he said. "I'm just gonna start you on acoustics so we don't have to worry about amps and everything. We can switch over later if you’re serious about it.”

Lysander led us outside around to the back of the cabin. A lot of the cabins had extensions though cabin three unfortunately didn’t. Cabin four had the most obvious one which was a green house, and Annabeth had told me that cabin six had their own armory with their personal stash of weapons passed down by campers through the ages, some as far back as the ancient times. Cabin seven, however, had to have the coolest.

Lysander opened the back door to reveal what was basically a recording studio combined with instrument storage. The walls were all padded for sound proofing alone with carpets layered over the floor. A grand piano, a harp, and Michael's drum kit took up the center of the room, but there was way more than that. There were mics and recording equipment and amps and cables as well as a ton of instruments carefully stored away in cases along the walls. There was a whole section dedicated just to guitars.

"Alright, test these out and see what feels good," Lysander said as he started pulling out different guitars.

He showed us how to hold them correctly so we could check if they were comfortable to hold and strum. I found one right away, but Sammy and Will were a little harder since they were smaller.

"Let's head outside so we have a little more space," Lysander said as he put away the extra guitars. He grabbed his own guitar as well as a bunch of picks, a tuner, and a music book on learning guitar.

He led us outside and away from the volleyball sand pits as well as anywhere else there were campers playing so we ended up settling in the grass kind of close to the hills.

"Second step," Lysander said once we were all sitting down with our guitars. "We gotta make sure they're tuned."

He walked us through using the tuner and adjusting the strings. Mine was the most out of tune, and it took me a while to get it corrected. He taught us the strings, the basic chords, how to read chord boxes, and how to strum. Sammy and Will struggled with getting their fingers on the right strings. Their hands were smaller, and they weren't super coordinated yet. I started working ahead in the book Lysander had brought while he helped them out. I practiced moving between the fingerings without strumming so I wouldn't interrupt.

Sammy and Will gave up for the day not even an hour in which I couldn’t really blame them for since we all had ADHD here. 

“It’s okay,” I said when Lysander turned to me with an apologetic look.

“You can keep practicing if you want,” he told me as he started putting his guitar back in its case. “Keep the guitar, tuner, picks, book, whatever. Just don’t leave them out, and keep them in your cabin.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. I lost things frequently, but there was no way I was going to lose any of it if Lysander was trusting me with them. I’d search the whole camp before I’d tell him I’d lost anything.

“Okay, great,” Lysander said, offering me a smile before turning to Will and saying, “Show me your cartwheel.”

“I can do a better one,” Sammy said, immediately launching into one. She kind of flopped over half way, but the point was Will and Sammy were both preoccupied and not running off while Lysander got their guitars packed.

“Is it alright if I stay here a little longer?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure, I don’t own the field,” Lysander said, before getting up with the three guitars. “Alright, who’s getting back to the cabin first?”

“Me!” both Will and Sammy shouted then sprinted for cabin seven.

“I’ll see you later,” Lysander told me.

“See ya,” I said before turning back to the book. I lost track of time for a bit, getting startled when the conch sounded for lunch. I rushed to pack everything up and get it safely stowed in cabin three before eating.

I tried to rejoin cabin seven after lunch, but Rosalind told me, “We’re doing rehearsals for Midsummer this afternoon. You can’t watch if you’ve never seen it before.”

“Oh,” I said, “Right, some other time then.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll only be a few weeks. Lysander will still do your guitar lessons Saturday mornings,” she told me with a smile.

“Okay,” I said and quickly left.

I went to go look for Grover, but I wasn’t really allowed in the woods anymore since everyone was sure I’d get attacked by a hellhound again so I didn’t have much luck in finding him. The one wood nymph I asked about it only told me he was busy before running off on me.

I found Annabeth along with a lot of cabin six outside the arts and crafts center.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked because it looked like they had a whole bunch of stuff set up from yarn and thread to large pots and drying racks.

“We’re getting ready to dye all the yarn and thread we’ve spun,” Annabeth said.

“With plants?” I asked.

“We do it the traditional way,” Darryl told me. “We get a lot of the material from either the satyrs and nymphs or from cabin four. Sometimes we bring stuff from back home, but normally that’s all used up by this point in the summer.”

Then both Darryl and Annabeth turned towards me.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked warily.

“You breathe underwater, right?” Darryl asked.

“Yes,” I said though I was tempted to lie.

“I read about being able to dye with seaweed,” Darryl said, “but we’ve never been able to go get it to really test it out since we haven’t been able to get the naiads to go into the ocean.”

“But you’re the son of the sea god,” Annabeth said. “You could get as much as we want.”

“Oh,” I said, relieved. Harvesting seaweed was way easier than hunting down something. “I can’t make any promises. I might need to talk to a Nereid, but I can try.”

“That’s great,” Darryl said, and both of them were smiling at me. “It doesn’t have to be today, or anything. We’ll do another round of dying in a month or so, but oh, that’s so exciting.”

I looked out towards the water. The sea was calm, a perfect summer’s day. I didn’t have anything else to do. “I’ll check it out. Do you know how far out I’m allowed to go in the water?”

“Uh, I’m actually not sure,” Darryl said. “People usually swim in the lake and not the sea.”

“I’ll try not to go too far then,” I said, “I’ll be back.”

“Wait, wait, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go on your own. We should at least have someone on the beach with you,” Darryl said.

“I can do it,” Annabeth said. “I can help with hanging everything afterwards.”

“I’ll come up every fifteen minutes or something like that,” I told Darryl.

“Alright, just be careful,” she said. “Don’t go chasing any sharks or sea monsters or whatever.”

“I don’t think any are around here, but I promise not to,” I said.

Annabeth and I jogged down to the beach.

“Oh, this is so exciting,” she said as we reached the sand. “Darryl and I like trying out new colors so it will be fun to experiment with entirely new plants. I know they did purple with sea snails, but I don’t think they grow around here, and I’m sure they have to be close to extinction. Grover would kill us if we harvested any of them.”

“He wouldn’t kill us,” I said as I pulled off my shoes and socks. They wouldn’t get wet, but it still seemed kind of wrong to wear them into the water. “But we would make us feel really, really guilty about it.”

She giggled. “Yeah, probably, but seaweed isn’t close to extinction at all.”

“Nope. I’ll be back in fifteen,” I said and started wading into the water.

I didn’t have a preplanned meeting set up this time, or a shark to help me, but I kind of figured out a walking plus pushing myself with the water type of movement to quickly reach deeper waters.

“It is good to see you fairing well, child.”

I spun around and found a Nereid floating in the water a few feet from me. “Hi. You’re the same Nereid from last time, right?”

“Yes, I am Eudora, goddess of gifts of the sea,” she said.

“Thanks for before. I didn’t really get a chance to say it.”

She smiled. “You are welcome.”

“Could I ask you something if it’s not too much trouble?” I asked. “My friends want to try dying yarn with seaweed so I was wondering if you could tell me where to find some.”

“These would not happen to be children of the goddess of handicraft, would they?”

I sunk down in the water. “You’re not going to be mad if I help them out, will you? I know my father isn’t super friendly with their mother.”

“All is well,” she told me. “They are both still Olympians. We in your father’s court often use seaweed for dying our own cloths. It is a good choice on their part to use it as well. I will gift you some.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I said, frantically waving my hands. “I can get it myself if you point me the right way. I don’t want to be a problem. You’ve already helped me out twice now.”

Eudora chuckled. “Perhaps things have changed on land, but things do not move so swiftly here. The sons of great beings, immortal or not, are meant to venture out and receive gifts and so become known to those around them.”

“But shouldn’t I give something back?” I asked.

“If you are honorable, you will in time,” she said. “And seaweed to dye with is not so great a gift.”

She made a motion with her hand and bundles of seaweed of all different types appeared in front of me.

“Thank you,” I told her as I grabbed onto the seaweed before it floated away.

“You’re welcome, child,” she said before disappearing into the water.

I returned to the shore with my haul. “Good news, the Nereid who helped us on the quest decided to give you guys a bunch of seaweed to dye with.”

Annabeth gaped at it wide eyed, and I got to spend the rest of the afternoon watching her and Darryl and half of cabin six perform different dying experiments with it. 

Chapter Text

I received a letter the next day from my mother. I took it with me back to cabin three to read by myself. It took me a little while to get through with my dyslexia, especially after having spent the last week only reading Greek.

Dear Percy,

I have some bad news, sweetheart. Gabe has gone missing. I’ve reported his disappearance to the police, but they haven’t been much help. Missing adults aren’t like missing kids. They think he’s just left me for someone else, and I can’t accept it. I don’t know what I’ll do if they can’t find him. I’m holding up as best I can.

But it’s not all bad. I sold my first sculpture. It’s a life sized full body portrait sculpture titled The Poker Player. People were really impressed with my skill. I was lucky. A few people wanted it and pushed up the price way, way up. The gallery I sold through really wanted me to make more, but I think I’ve said all I can with sculpture and am going back to writing. I’ve safely disposed of the tools you left me so no need to worry about that.

I found a new, much nicer apartment with the money. There’s a room all set up for you. I’ve also started on my application to CUNY. I’ve missed the deadline to start this fall, but I can make the deadline to apply for the spring semester. I even put a deposit down for a spot at a private school here in the city. It’s supposed to be really good for kids like you with dyslexia and ADHD. You could live at home with me, but if you want to go year round at Half-Blood Hill, I understand.

I love you so much. Write back to me soon.

Love,

Mom

I folded it back up carefully. I set it on my bedside table right where I could always see it. I read it every night before I went to sleep, but I didn’t write back. I got paper and a pen, but I stopped after Dear Mom every time.

The Fourth of July rolled around towards the end of the week. Instead of a sing along or a jam session, everyone went out by the lake. I’d been hearing bits and pieces from Beckendorf all week, but Castor and Pollux hadn’t been able to convince him to spill all the details for the fireworks show cabin nine were putting on. All I’d been able to see snooping around myself was the barge they’d anchored off shore. I’d swam up to it, but I didn’t want to try climbing up after Beckendorf had told Castor that Helga had installed security. I might not freak out at spiders like Annabeth, but I didn’t need to go through a Waterland 2.0 experience.

Cabins six and seven set up next to each other for the extravaganza so I planned to share a blanket with Annabeth and also Sammy, Aislinn, and Will.

“Hey, guys.”

I turned around to see Grover for the first time in several days. He looked older than before with his facial hair coming in thicker and his horns starting to stick out from his hair. He was dressed for the outside world with sneakers over fake feet, and he held a larger rasta cap in one hand and a walking stick in the other. He also had a backpack slung over his shoulder.

“Hey, can you finish setting up?” I asked Will.

He nodded. “We got this.”

I left them to it and joined Annabeth and Grover.

“I’m heading out now that I’ve officially got my searcher’s license,” he told us. “I just came to say, well, you know.”

I was lucky Annabeth went to hug him first so I could clear my throat and try to straighten out my face. I’d only met Grover a little under a year ago, but that was still the longest I’d ever been friends with anyone with all the school changes.

“Keep your fake feet on,” Annabeth told him.

I offered Grover my hand, and he pulled me into a bro hug. “Where’re you headed first?” I asked him.

“Kind of a secret,” he said apologetically. “I wish you guys could come with me, but humans and Pan…”

“We understand,” Annabeth assured him. “You got enough cans?”

“Plenty.”

“What about your reed pipes?”

“Jeez, you’re like an old mama goat,” he said, but he didn’t exactly sound like he was complaining. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, seriously,” I told him. “And be careful.”

“I will,” he promised, clapping me on the shoulder before turning away. He walked off towards the border of camp.

“Hey, you got sand on it!” Aislinn shouted.

“No, I didn’t!” Will argued.

“Guys,” Lysander said.

“I’ll fix it,” I said, picking up the blanket and shaking it out. “Just don’t put your shoes on it anymore.”

Aislinn shot as withering a look a ten year old could give, and Will stuck his tongue out at her.

“I can make you sit with me,” Lysander said.

“No, I was gonna sit with Percy,” Aislinn said.

“No, he’s going to sit with me,” Will argued.

“What is happening?” I asked.

“We’re all gonna sit on the same blanket,” Annabeth told them as she took her seat towards the back of the blanket.

I tried to sit next to her, but ended up with the three Apollo kids surrounding me somehow. I looked towards the dunes where Grover had walked off. He had already disappeared.

“We’ll see him again,” Annabeth said.

I nodded, but there was no guarantee of that. No other satyr had ever come back.

The first firework sparked in the sky. Sammy, Aislinn, and Will gave us a play by play of all the tableaus the Hephaestus kids animated above our heads like we couldn’t see Heracles killing the Nemean lion ourselves.

For the rest of the week, after Greek lessons, activities, and chores, I continued practicing guitar while cabin seven and twelve were busy rehearsing. I was going to be prepared for my next lesson with Lysander.

Then on Saturday morning, I showed up at what seemed to be our new spot outside on the grass. Despite all the practice and that Sammy and Will were both younger and had smaller hands than me, we all sounded just as good.

“How?” I asked. “Weren’t you guys doing the play all week?”

“I still practiced,” Will said, pouting at me.

“Most of us get a jump with anything music or arts related or whatever because of Dad, but we still have to put the work in if we really want to be good,” Lysander said. Then he shrugged. “You get the ability to breathe underwater from your dad so I think we’re all even.”

I made a face, but eventually sighed. “Fine.”

Playing guitar was cool, but breathing underwater was even better.

Lysander had us focus more on our strumming and correcting our rhythm now that we knew the basic chords. I had trouble getting everything to work together seamlessly while my hands were busy doing two different things and kept practicing while Lysander went over Will’s picking technique with him.

Then Lysander stopped talking, and I looked up. I could hear someone singing.

"With songs they have sung for a thousand years."

It took me a second to recognize ‘The Sound of Music.’ My mom loved Julie Andrews so I was pretty used to hearing her singing it, but the voice was definitely male.

"Dad!" Sammy practically screeched as she abandoned the guitar and leaped to her feet.

"The hills fill my heart with the sound of music."

Will jumped up after her, and they both ran towards Half-Blood Hill. I spotted Apollo at the top, walking quickly downhill while a satyr was guiding a girl around my age towards the Big House.

"My heart wants to sing every song it hears," Apollo sang.

"Every song it hears," Lysander sang, echoing the melody at a slightly higher pitch with a smile.

I stayed where I was, clutching my guitar as he stood up to follow his siblings.

"My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds that rise from the lake to the trees,” Apollo sang and all three of his kids harmonized above him.

Only Lysander echoed, "From the Lake to the trees."

Sammy and Will reached Apollo as he reached the foot of the hill, each latching onto one of his arms and grinning up at him.

"My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies from a church on a breeze," they sang, and the three of them walked together to join Lysander on the flat ground.

Standing across from each other, Apollo and Lysander looked a lot more like brothers, maybe even twins, than father and son. The only obvious difference from a distance was Apollo’s longer, curlier hair.

"To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls over stones on its way,” they sang together.

“On its way,” Lysander echoed.

“To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray. I go to the hills when my heart is lonely," Apollo sang as he knelt down before Sammy and Will, pulling his hands free to cup their faces as they dropped out of the song. "I know I will hear what I've heard before."

The kids switched to singing "oohs" rather than harmonizing with Apollo.

"My heart will be blessed with the sound of music," he sang, and while he was probably outdoing any broadway singer alive, I could still hear him smiling. "And I'll sing once more."

He dragged the last note out to let Sammy, Will and Lysander chime in with him.

I wasn't ever in a million years going to ask any of them, but I was pretty sure Apollo had never once told a single one of them that he regretted having them.

Then Apollo said, "You were so good!"

Will and Sammy both giggled as Apollo reeled them in one at a time to kiss their heads. Then he stood up and reached for Lysander.

"No, Dad, no," Lysander said, backing away.

"What?" Apollo asked, pouting at him.

"I don't need a kiss," he said. “I’m not twelve anymore.”

"Get him, Dad," Sammy said, still giggling as she pressed into Apollo's side.

"If he doesn't want one, I guess that means there's more for you," he said, kissing the top of her head several more times before ruffling her hair. "Now we need to go find everyone else because I can’t stay too long."

“Come on,” Will said, pulling Apollo along by his hand.

“They’re this way,” Sammy said, taking his other hand.

“Bye, Percy,” Will said as they started passing me.

“Guitar lessons?” Apollo asked.

I froze, not sure what to do. I felt wrong footed watching them all together like a family. I swallowed down my first answer because I probably shouldn’t tell off a god for interrupting.

“Yeah, Lysander’s teaching us,” Sammy said.

“Do you like it?” Apollo asked as the other guitars started packing themselves away. Then they disappeared with a twist of the light. 

“It’s fun,” Sammy said. “Percy’s better at playing than singing.”

“Hey!” I complained, and my cheeks burned as Apollo laughed even though I could tell it wasn’t mean spirited or anything.

“I’m sure he can get better,” Apollo told them. “You’ll be good and help him, won’t you?”

“Of course,” Will said.

“Sorry, we can pick back up later,” Lysander told me as he followed the rest of his family.

“It’s fine,” I said, ignoring an ache in my chest.

I watched as Sammy and Will dragged Apollo across the field to the cabins. A lot of the younger campers just stared at them, but the older ones greeted Apollo and even got responses though neither Will or Sammy would let go of Apollo’s hands to let him wave.

I sighed and packed up my guitar. I looked over towards the cabins, but cabin three was past cabin seven. I waited a long while before braving the trek. I didn’t see Apollo, and I could only hear his kids talking. It actually was a little disappointing not to be able to hear them sing again.

Castor and Pollux sat with me for dinner, and for once, cabin seven didn’t take forever to get through their offerings. Something else was bothering me about them though.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Castor asked with a teasing smile.

“Figured what out?” I asked.

“How you can always tell when Phoebus visits,” Pollux said.

“The singing?” I asked.

“Okay, well, technically that is one way,” Castor said, rolling his eyes. “I meant the other thing.”

“What other thing?” I asked and looked back over to table seven. I frowned. “Wait, are they all blonder?”

Both twins laughed.

“And tanned,” Pollux said. “Except for poor Aislinn.”

I glanced over at her. She turned towards us to talk to Sammy, and she had a new smattering of dark freckles across her face.

“It’s because he’s the sun god, right?” I asked.

“Gives a whole new meaning to the term sun-kissed,” Castor said with a chuckle.

I picked out Lysander from the rest of the table. He might have complained about getting kissed when Apollo had showed up, but his hair was a shade or two lighter and his tan that little bit darker.

After sing along where Sammy, Aislinn, and Will all tried to help me to sing better to no success, I caught up with Lysander.

“Hey,” he said when he spotted me.

“Hey, can I ask you something? It’s a little weird.”

“Shoot.”

“Why did your dad sing you ‘Sound of Music’ earlier?” I asked. “It’s not that old, and it’s not Greek or anything.”

Lysander smiled. “That’s easy. It’s Sammy’s favorite, well, she goes back and forth between that and ‘Do Rei Me’, but ‘Do Rei Me’s harder to do without all of us so it’s just easier to do ‘Sound of Music.’ Aislinn gets a Disney song, and Will gets one of his mom’s.”

“His mom’s?” I asked.

“Yeah, his mom’s Naomi Solace,” he said. “I’ve got no idea if you’ve heard of her, but she’s an alt country artist. It’s not really my thing.”

His spoke casually, but there was a downward twist to his lips.

“You don’t like her?” I asked.

“Never really met her,” he said, a firmness to his tone it didn’t normally carry. It said do not cross.

I just had one question before I could stop. “She’s not like, you know—,”

“No, no, it’s not like that. Will’s never said anything even suggesting that,” Lysander said. “I just…don’t like her music.”

I could relax my shoulders. I could leave it if it wasn’t that serious. Then I blurted out, “Mom got rid of him.”

“What?” Lysander asked, turning towards me.

“She got rid of him,” I repeated.

“Okay, let’s not talk about that here,” he said, looking at the other people passing around us.

He put a hand on my back, just below the base of my neck, comforting and warm, and walked with me to cabin three. I tried not to shiver as we entered the cool space. Lysander motioned for me to sit on the couch, and then he sat across from me on the coffee table. The couch was leather like in cabin seven, but this one was black and stiff and not worn in by years of people sitting on it.

“You want to explain to me what happened?” he asked.

“Mom sent me a letter,” I said. “I left her Medusa’s head, and she made him into a statue, and she got a lot of money from selling it.”

“Okay,” he said slowly.

“But she also said she put a deposit down at a fancy private school for me,” I said in a rush. “I could live with her this time rather than at some stupid boarding school.”

“I see.”

I swallowed. “That’s it? You’re not going to say anything else?”

“What would you want me to say?”

“What I’m supposed to do, about any of it.”

Lysander offered me a gentle smile. “I can’t do that for you. I’m happy that man’s no longer in your or your mother’s life because he really sounds like he was awful, but this is your own decision, just like what to do with him was your mother’s.”

“But I,” then I let out a huff. I struggled to find words. “I don’t like school. I’ve gotten kicked out of every one, and Darryl’s the only person who’s like actually taught me anything. I don’t even know Shakespeare like you do. I don’t want to go back to any of that.”

“Just for the record, I’m not a good comparison point for Shakespeare,” he said. “My mother’s so into the dude she attracted the god of poetry, but, anyways, you can continue.”

I chuckled even though my stomach was trying to eat itself. “I don’t wanna go back but…”

“But you thought you mom was dead, and now you’ve got a chance to live with her when it sounds like you haven’t been able to do that safely in a really long time,” Lysander said quietly.

I nodded.

“You’ve got a little more than a month to make this decision,” he said gently. “You can learn everything you can to help make it. You can talk to Will, and I know you’re friends with Annabeth now, so you can talk to them about being year rounders since camp is a little different outside of summer. You’ll get your lessons with Chiron, not Darryl, and it’ll be all the school stuff not just Greek. Most of the campers won’t be here. I’ve gotta go back to college in the fall, and I’m not even sure I can commit to coming back next summer.”

My throat felt tight, but I could still draw in a shaky breath. I picked at my fingers, studying them for any imperfections.

“It’s okay if you’re just not ready to go back to normal school,” Lysander continued. “You went through a lot this summer. You won’t be able to tell people about it because of the Mist which is going to be on top of any other issues you’ve already had with school. Maybe you spend this year at camp then you go back, or maybe you don’t go back ever.”

I nodded.

I heard Lysander shifting forwards towards me, but I couldn’t lift my head to face him.

“It’s also okay if you’re not ready to live with your mom.”

“What?” I asked, my voice cracking on the word as my head snapped up.

I searched his face, but he was deadly serious.

“She’s my mom,” I said, quickly brushing away the beginning of tears. “She’s amazing. She’s perfect. She never gets mad at me even though the only thing I ever do is just mess things up for her and make her life worse.”

“Percy,” he said gently, and I scrubbed harder at my eyes.

“It’s true. She’s not like Will’s mom or whatever,” I insisted. “She loves me.”

“I’m not saying she doesn’t,” he said, still speaking calmly and slowly. “I’m only telling you that there’s nothing wrong with you, and you’re not a bad son if you’re upset that she married a man you hated enough to want to kill him and that you didn’t like that she kept sending you away to boarding school.”

My throat and my eyes were burning. “That’s not true. I don’t want to leave her. I was going to rescue her.”

“I know,” he said, and he sounded like he really did. “But a rescue is a big event, and hopefully a one time thing. Sometimes, it can be really easy to do the big, grand thing for the people you love. It’s a lot harder to show up for the little things. Living together is a lot of little things every day that it sounds like you haven’t really done with her before, at least not as just the two of you. She’ll be different. You’ll be different. It’s okay if you need a grace period.”

“I don’t want it to change,” I said. “I just…want her to be my mom.”

“I’m sorry,” Lysander said, sympathetic and gentle.

It still landed like a knife to the chest.

“But nothing can stay the same,” he said. “Not even all of the power of all the gods can stop change. At least with this, you can take some time to decide.”

“I’m gonna go to bed,” I said, abruptly standing up.

“Alright, I’ll let you sleep on it,” he said, getting to his feet.

He put a hand on my shoulder. I couldn’t stop myself. I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his chest. I felt it expand as he took a deep breath in and let it out slowly as he returned the hug.

“You’ll be okay,” he told me. “You will figure out what’s best for you. Get some sleep, okay? You’ll feel better in the morning.”

I nodded and reluctantly let him go.

Chapter Text

The next day, I ended up in the Arts and Crafts Center. I kind of avoided the place as I had no artistic ability to speak of. So far guitar lessons were the best I'd ever done with anything that might be considered under the Muses purview and that was mostly down to Lysander's help. But it's where a lot of the Athena kids hang out, specifically in the craft corner with all the tools for spinning and weaving. The most intimidating thing in the whole place was a massive loom that took up the entire back wall. No one was currently working on it, but I'd seen three of Annabeth's siblings on it the last time I'd popped my head in.

Now everyone seemed to be working on everything that they’d dyed. They used hand cranked machines to wind up thread and yarn, and I spotted Annabeth carefully writing out labels in pen.

"Percy," Darryl greeted me with a smile, not stopping as she wound the yarn. "What's up?"

"Not much," I said.

She finished the cake of yarn, popping it off the machine and setting it in front of Annabeth. She then continued on to me, putting a hand on my shoulder as she quietly asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

I squinted up at her. "Lysander talked to you, didn't he?"

She nodded. "Just that you were having a hard time deciding whether or not to stay for the year. There's a form you'd have to fill out at the end of the summer, but we like to have an idea of who and how many ahead of time."

"But you don't stay, right?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, I gotta go back for junior year unfortunately."

"What are you studying?" I asked. Lysander hadn't said what he'd majored in, but I was curious what sort of a thing a demigod would pick to study.

"Econ," she said with a heavy sigh. "Because Dad somehow convinced me law school was a good idea."

"You're gonna go to law school?" I asked, gaping at her. "With dyslexia?"

My eyes would fall out of my head if I even tried to read something like a law textbook.

"I have a word processor to handle any spelling, okay, I can still understand how law works," she said, her annoyed tone reminding me of every time I'd argued with a teacher that I could read just give me five more minutes and stop looking over my shoulder at everything I did.

"Sorry," I said quickly. "I just didn't think about, you know, a demigod going to law school or anything, it's not like an ancient Greek thing, unless they did have law schools? But it sounds really cool, I guess, I don't really know anything about it."

"No, it's fine," she said taking a breath. "It's not a Greek thing. My Dad just said I'd be good at it because I’m really good at structuring an argument and keeping things organized, but yeah, it took a while to get better at reading everything I needed to, but I did it so."

Then she looked at me, narrowing her eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"I might need to give you guys more tips for reading in English," she said. "But we can do that tomorrow. What’re you here for?”

“I just wanted to ask Annabeth about what staying year round was like.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” she said then turned to Annabeth. “Hey, Percy wants to talk to you so I can take over the labeling.”

“Oh, okay,” Annabeth said, finishing knotting the tie on the label and then capping her pen. “Just let me grab some thread?”

“Sure,” I said.

She ran around picking out different colors and cutting them for another fingerloop braid. “Let’s head out and get some more space.”

She picked out a flat area on the grass near the Arts and Crafts Center and set up her braiding like she had on the train. She had to tell me a couple of things again before I was back up to speed.

“So what’s up?” she asked. “And don’t say it’s nothing because you never come around here. It’s not Grover, is it?”

“No, it’s not that,” I said, and I watched her perform a few switches and fixing her tension for her before I said, “I don’t know if I wanted to stay for the year or not.”

Annabeth lowered her hands without dropping the loops. “But I thought your mom was back.”

“She is.”

“Then why aren’t you going to live with her?”

I cleared my throat. “I’ve gotten kicked out of every school I’ve ever been in. Staying here means I don’t have to do that again.”

“Oh,” she said and slowly started braiding again. “I don’t know. I can’t really compare it to normal school. I can’t really remember ever going.”

“Well, it sucks,” I told her. “The teachers don’t give you time to read and blame you for everything even if you didn’t do it and all the other kids act like Clarisse or worse. They won’t fight you outright, they’ll just say things to you until you snap, and then you’re the one in trouble. I got in a lot of fights last year because they kept picking on Grover, and I wasn’t going to let them.”

Annabeth didn’t say anything for a little while just kept braiding. “You already know Chiron. He teaches us here. It’s a little difficult with the different ages, but we send everything in for the school curriculum and we mostly get good grades on the standardized tests. It’s really only Clarisse from cabin five that sticks around the whole year, and she never tries anything without her sisters to back her up.”

“Sounds about right.”

I watched as Annabeth braided, mesmerized by her changing the loops and automatically adjusting the tension for her.

“Can I ask why you’re here year round?” I asked. “Why you came here so young?”

Annabeth slowed in her braiding. Then she sighed. “My dad didn’t want me. When he got me, he asked my mother to take me back and raise me on Olympus, but that’s not how it works.”

I winced. Getting told that by your mortal parent had to be worse than hearing it from your godly one. At least you knew going in that the immortal one never had a chance of winning a parent of the year award.

“When I was five, he got married and totally forgot about my mother,” Annabeth continued, pulling the loops so hard she nearly tugged the other end out of my hands. “He got a regular mortal wife and two regular mortal kids and tried to pretend I didn’t exist.”

“Oh.”

“And then, two years ago, he sent his college ring to me, his one keepsake from my mother, and he apologized for being a terrible father and asked me to come back and live with him,” she continued as she forcefully braided the cord. “I believed him. I tried to go home for the school year, but my stepmom wasn’t exactly on the same page. She didn’t want to put her kids in danger living with some freak. A monster attacked, she yelled about it, I yelled back, I called Chiron and came back here.”

She pulled the loops so far apart so quickly that the end popped out of my grip. She stared at it like she’d never seen it happen before.

“Sorry,” I said and quickly grabbed the end again.

She didn’t start braiding again, placing her hands in her lap with the loops still on her fingers.

“Would you ever try living with him again?” I asked quietly.

“Ha,” she said, glaring off towards the ocean in the distance. “Not a chance. He’s made his choice about who he’d rather live with.”

I frowned down at the inch or two of cord that she’d made so far. “You wouldn’t want to even at least try talking to him again? Send him a letter or something? He’s still your dad, and he tried.”

“Maybe,” she said with a frown. “What about you? You wanted to go to the Underworld for your mom. She can’t be anything like that.”

She started braiding again, not quite so forcefully this time.

“She married a guy to cover up my scent to keep me safe from monsters,” I said.

She slowed, looking up at me rather than the loops.

“But now that I can defend myself, she’s gotten rid of him,” I said rather than getting into the Medusa head of it all. Annabeth could probably work it out for herself if she really wanted to know about it.

“Then why are you considering staying here at all?” she asked. “Why are you even here now? I’d be running if my dad left my stepmom for me.”

“I…” I met her eyes, and she looked so genuinely confused. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“She wants you to live with her, and she got rid of your mortal stepdad,” she said. “What else could even matter?”

“A lot, okay?” I asked because I couldn’t explain it to her.

“Okay,” she said, but with a tilt to her head that said she disagreed with everything I’d said. “Maybe you should talk to Luke. He’s a year rounder, too.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I agreed, but Luke would be harder to talk to one on one since he was in charge of cabin eleven. Then again, we did have a counselors meeting that night.

I made sure to leave the meeting at the same time as Luke. I tried to be casual since I hadn't seen him as much from moving out of cabin eleven and going on the quest. "Hey."

"Hey," he said. "What's up?"

"Could I ask you about staying here at camp year round?" I asked. "I'm thinking about whether I want to stay here or not, and Annabeth said to talk to you."

"No one wants to stay here," Luke said.

"What?" I asked at how brusque and confident the answer was.

"No one wants to stay here for the school year," he said. "The only ones who stay here are the ones with fucked up parents or who can't hack it in the real world. You don't want to stay here if you don't have to."

"Really?"

Luke shrugged. "You want the truth, don't you? If you stay here, as soon as you get out the only thing mortals are gonna think about you is that you're some homeschooled weirdo. You don't want to be that guy."

I frowned. "What are you doing after the summer then? Like, you're an adult now so you can just leave, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "I'm leaving, and I'm never coming back."

"What about Annabeth?"

Luke scowled so deeply the muscle under his scar twitched violently. "I can't take her with me. It’s not really any of your business.”

"Okay, uh, thanks for answering then, I guess,” I said, backing off.

Luke sighed, dropping the scowl. "Yeah, sure. No problem."

I left him to head back to cabin three. I spent a lot of the next week practicing guitar. I needed a third opinion, or really more like fifth at this point.

"Hey, Will, can I ask you something?" I asked during the last break in our Greek lesson with Darryl.

All three of the youngest Apollo kids turned towards me.

"Yeah, what about?" he asked.

"Uh, what it's like staying at the camp year round," I said.

Sammy and Aislinn both shot Will wary looks, and the boy wrinkled his nose in distaste.

"It sucks," he said, crossing his arms. "You shouldn't do it if your dad's not making you."

"Wait," I said, holding up a hand. "Your dad is making you stay here year round?"

Will nodded.

I'd never heard of a god basically winning a custody agreement for their kid unless the agreement was the god didn't have to do anything. Like Annabeth had said, demigods just weren't raised on Olympus.

"Is that allowed?" I asked. "Isn't he not supposed to interfere or whatever?"

"He doesn't," Will said. "He doesn't show up more often or anything like that in winter so he’s not breaking the rules."

"It's kind of like a loophole," Sammy said. "This camp is his. Chiron's his son. It's as close as we can get to living with Dad."

Will scoffed. "It's not like living with Dad at all. At least with Mom, I actually got to see her every day.”

“That’s not Dad’s fault,” Sammy said.

"He’d see us more if he could,” Aislinn said. “Dad cares about all of us.”

"I know, but I should get to see my mom, too," Will argued. "Everyone else gets to. It’s not fair!"

"That's because everyone else's mom has a house," Sammy said imperiously, hands on her hips. "Gordie's dad even has two."

"My mom has a house!" Will yelled at her then stormed off.

"Sammy," Aislinn said worriedly, watching Will as he left.

Sammy ignored her and turned to me, "You shouldn't listen to Will. We're not supposed to talk about it, but Will lived on a bus and hotel rooms, that's why Dad says he has to stay. He couldn't even read English or Greek before he got here."

"Sammy!" Aislinn shouted, scandalized.

"It's true. It's why everyone's mad at Will's mom," Sammy said. "Dad said we have to be nice to her because she's Will's mom and Will's our brother, but that's stupid. I don't care who she is, she hurt my brother."

"Okay," I said slowly. I'd clearly stepped into the middle of a minefield I shouldn't have gone anywhere near.

"If your mom's a bad mom, you should stay here," Sammy said. "Dad will take care of you."

"I'm, uh, not looking to get adopted," I said awkwardly. "I think my dad would get mad, and my mom's a good mom. I just don't know that normal school is a good idea for me."

"Oh," Sammy said, dropping her arms. "Well, Dad and Chiron will still take care of you if you do decide to stay."

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" I asked.

They both gave me confused looks.

"Mr. D?"

"Dad says we should ignore Mr. D as much as possible," Aislinn said.

I had to slap a hand over my mouth to keep from bursting out into laughter. I cleared my throat. "Yeah, I don't really want to listen to Mr. D either."

"Hey, guys," Darryl said. "We've got class, remember?"

Then she frowned and counted us. "Where's Will?"

"He stormed off," Sammy answered.

"Gods," Darryl said. "You couldn't have mentioned it when it happened?"

“It happened just now,” she said.

Darryl waved to a passing satyr what had happened, and he agreed to find Will while the rest of us returned to class. The satyr showed up five minutes later with a scowling Will in tow. I could barely pay attention for the rest of class, and spent a lot of lunch staring down at my food. Thankfully we did canoeing in the afternoon which made it easier to get a chance to talk to Lysander.

As soon as we were out on the water and away from the others in our two person canoe, I turned back and asked him, "Uh, so what's the deal with Will sleeping in a bus? Was he really doing that?"

Lysander frowned down at me. "How do you—did he tell you that?"

I shook my head. "Sammy did."

He sighed, rubbing his face.

I lowered my voice. "Was he really not able to read when he came here?

He set his paddle in the center of the boat, clunking it against the bottom. "Do not go spreading that around. He doesn't need to get embarrassed or bullied about it."

"I wouldn't," I insisted. I spotted Michael turn his head towards us, and I lowered my voice again. "But he said Phoebus was making him stay here, and Sammy said some stuff, and I didn't know what was true."

Lysander rubbed his forehead. "Okay, I shouldn't have told you to talk to Will.”

"But is he okay?" I asked. "Will, I mean."

Lysander lowered his hand, glaring out across the lake in a way that was almost scary, like he could burn through whatever he looked at. Then he turned back to me. "Look, it’s not your problem, and Sammy shouldn't have told you any of that. All you need to know is his mom really tried to make things work for him to stay with her, but she just wasn't equipped to teach a kid with dyslexia and ADHD, okay?"

"I'm not, like, some stranger off the street," I said. "We're family. You're my cousin's kids."

"Do not go pulling that generational crap," Lysander said. "You're not an adult. You're twelve, and you're not our brother. This isn't your business."

"I'm just checking he's doing alright," I said, ignoring the tightness in my throat. "I didn't mean to bring all that up, but he stormed off earlier and a satyr had to bring him back to class."

Lysander sighed what I was pretty sure was a swear word under his breath. “He’s fine, but I didn’t tell you about it for a reason. Sammy shouldn’t have said anything either if Will got that mad. Just keep it to yourself. Will doesn’t deserve to have this shit spread around.”

“I told you, I’m not gonna,” I said. “I was asking him what camp was like in winter and then I didn’t know if Sammy was exaggerating or not. If you say Will’s fine then I believe you.”

“Good,” he said.

We sat there in the boat, drifting aimlessly as the sun sparkled off the water. We’d need to move pretty soon though. I could see naiads a couple feet down which meant we were at risk of getting capsized and only one of us breathed water.

“Hey,” I said. “We’re cool, right?”

Lysander looked me over then nodded. “Yeah, we’re cool.”

He pulled the paddle out of the center of the boat and started steering us again. I took a breath and followed his lead. It was still a little tense, but I really wasn’t going to say anything to anyone else. Lysander would see.

Chapter Text

I left the question of whether to stay for the year alone. I didn’t approach Will during Greek lessons, but he still sat with me along with his sisters during sing along. Lysander didn’t act any different during afternoon activities, and still taught me more about guitar on Saturday. I started using the shield from Andrew and Beckendorf during sword lessons with Luke since that was what I was going to be using out in the world. Cabin seven also had it's first spear lessons since I'd joined up and that wasn't during horseback riding or when I was off questing.

Andrew did a demonstration of throwing, but also a slow motion, mock spar with Lysander.

"We don't do phalanxes?" I asked when the demos didn't go any further.

"Not really that useful when you're on your own," Andrew said with shrug. "We fight monsters one to one for the most part. We're not out here attacking other Greek armies."

"That's true," I said.

After that, it was mostly a lot of trying to stab and missing the dummy's torso. The spear felt awkward in my hand the same way the practice swords had, but I couldn't deny the extra reach was pretty sweet.

"Alright, fine, I admit it," Andrew said, shaking his head. "You're a sword guy."

"Thanks for noticing," I said.

"That doesn't mean you're getting out of practice," he said. "You never know when a spear could save your life."

"Yeah, I got it," I said, adjusting my grip and trying again.

During the next horse riding session, Emmeline made me switch gear.

"You can't go trail riding in the woods anyways so we're just going to go straight into dressage," she said as she pulled down an English saddle.

"What's that?"

She grinned, and honestly, maybe Andrew should call her baby shark instead of me. "The fun part."

Dressage was most definitely not fun. Western saddles were way more comfortable, and I had to sit perfectly upright. I couldn't hold the reins in one hand anymore either. I had to use both hands and pull the rein up between my ring and pinkie finger, loop it up through my fist to fold forward over my index fingers, and put my thumbs right on top. It took me a little while to get used to the feel and having my hands in the right spot over Nancy's withers with the right tension.

"Time to learn how to post," Emmeline said once I'd gotten comfortable with the new gear.

"Post what?" I asked.

She laughed. "It's how you move while your horse trots to make it easier on them."

I'd never gone faster than a walk before.

She is correct Nancy added in.

"How do you do it?" I asked warily.

"You have to get up off the back of the horse in time with their movements."

"I have to stand up?" I asked. Maybe this was the time to get off of Nancy.

"Yep. I'll walk you through it while she's standing first," she said.

She guided through how to stand up from the stirrups. My lower legs weren't supposed to move at all, my hips shift forward, and my spine stay neutral, all while keeping my hands down at Nancy's withers. It was not at all like standing up from a chair considering there was a living breathing animal underneath me.

"The other thing you need to be careful about is you can't kick when you're out of the saddle," Emmeline said. "If you need her to speed up, you have to time it for when you're seated."

"Okay," I said with a nod.

"And lastly is the diagonal," she said, and there was the shark smile again.

"Diagonal of what?"

"The trot. It's a two beat diagonal gate, one pair of legs and then the other. You have to choose which shoulder you post with," she said. "It doesn't matter as much on a straight path, but when turning the correct diagonal is the outside shoulder. You go up when it goes out."

"Okay," I said slowly, looking down at Nancy's shoulder.

"Ready to try moving?" she asked.

"Sure."

You'll do well, my lord Nancy assured me.

I took a steadying breath and kicked Nancy into a trot. I could see immediately why someone would want to post rather than try to sit and get bounced around during a trot. I got the actual posting part down okay since I had the rhythm of Nancy's gate to help me, but I had Emmeline constantly on me to get my diagonal correct.

Dismounting after an hour of practicing posting made my legs after my first ever dismount look like titanium. I landed right in the dirt on my backside.

Emmeline looked down at me. "Maybe you should just stay there while I take care of Nancy."

"I got it," I said then groaned as I forced myself to get back to my feet. "Everything hurts."

"Horse-riding is a full workout," she said, completely unsympathetically.

I dumped water on myself rather than drinking it, and it helped a little. I jumped in the lake before dinner, and that helped more.

At the end of the month, cabins seven and twelve finally put on A Midsummer Night's Dream. Castor got to play Puck after all. Lysander played both Theseus and Oberon. The Greek mortals wore chiton, but the fairies all wore Tudor costumes but with sparkly face-paint which was a weird mix. I was never going to tell Lysander, but I really didn't understand half of what they were saying. It didn't seem to matter all that much because it was still funny. I clapped as loud as I could at the end.

"Did you like it?" Sammy asked, grinning and still glittering from her Peaseblossom costume.

"Yeah, it was really good," I told her.

"Now you know where Lysander comes from," Aislinn said, sparkling in blue rather than pink like Sammy.

"They're not really much like each other," I said.

"Only because people aren't smearing Klêidouchos's flowers on his eyes," Will said, shifting the yellow shimmer on his cheeks as he grinned.

'Holding the keys'?

It took me a second to connect that to Eros from the play.

"That's a weird epithet," I said.

"The keys are to your heart," Aislinn said, nodding sagely.

"Oh, well, now it all makes sense," I said, and all three giggled.

"Percy."

I looked up to see Lysander joining us. He still had some purple glitter left on the edges of his face even though he'd wiped off the paint.

"What did you think?" he asked.

"It was good," I said. "I'll have to check out more Shakespeare."

"You'll have to see As You Like It next," he said as he reached out to ruffle my hair. "That's where Rosie's name is from."

"Okay, I will," I promised.

I caught movement behind Lysander. I made the mistake of looking. It was Bea, still in costume, kissing Andrew full in the face.

"What are you looking at?" Lysander asked.

"Nothing," I said, but not quick enough to keep Lysander from turning around.

"Andrew!" he snapped.

"Go away, Lysander," Bea said, wrapping her arms tighter around Andrew's shoulders. "If you just asked out—,"

"No, don’t say it," Lysander interrupted, pointing a finger at her.

"Then maybe you wouldn't feel the need to poke your nose into my relationship," she finished, shooting him a meaningful look before pressing a kiss to Andrew's cheek.

"Ew," Lysander said.

"Grow up," Andrew said.

"Never," Lysander said then turned back to us. He didn't actually seem all that angry though. He looked down at the three youngest of his siblings. "No dating cabin five, okay? It's weird."

"I'm never dating boys," Sammy said, crossing her arms. "They're gross."

"Hey," Will complained.

"Except for Will," she amended.

"Okay, well, you can tell Dad you're joining Aunt Delia when the time comes," Lysander told her.

That had to be Artemis since she was Apollo's only sister also to be born on Delos.

"Do you really not like Andrew that much?" I asked.

All four of them stared at me like I'd lost my mind.

"What?" I asked.

"Andrew and I came to camp at the same time so we've known each other like basically forever. We learned guitar together. He even broke my arm once," Lysander said and grinned like he was proud of it like it was some cool summer activity they did together. "Which is why I don’t like that he’s decided to just start dating my sister.”

"Andrew's allowed to like other people, Lysander," Aislinn said. "You said so."

"Yeah, but not to the point of dating my sister," he argued. "That's weird."

None of the three younger kids looked like they believed him, and I didn't have sisters so it was a non-issue for me.

“If you say so,” I said.

Lysander sighed. “I’m surrounded by plebeians.”

“I’m gonna go find Castor and Pollux,” I said.

“Okay, see you,” Lysander said, and Will waved goodbye.

I found the twins on the other side of the Apollo contingent. Castor still had all the bright green face paint on, but Pollux had been spared by playing Nick Bottom.

“Hey,” I called out to them.

“What’d you think?” Pollux asked. “Pretty good, huh?”

“Yeah, it was fun,” I said. “You guys did great.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Castor said, taking an extravagant bow.

“How’re you gonna get all that paint off?” I asked.

“Don’t talk to me about that. I’m going to be finding glitter in my bed for weeks,” he said then took a deep breath in and flipped his hair dramatically. “But I shall persevere.”

I chuckled.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m cool with being Bottom,” Pollux said. “Even if Helga didn’t let me keep the donkey head.”

“If you steal all the props, we’re not gonna have any left,” Castor said.

His brother shrugged. “We’ll just make more.”

“You mean we’ll have to make more,” Helga said from behind him, carrying the donkey head under her arm.

“Exactly,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “I should make you clean the shop.”

“No, not that, anything but that,” he pleaded.

I tried my best not to laugh. I stuck around as long as I could, but eventually the other counselors mushed all of us to bed.

Summer continued, and I was running out of time to make my decision even as I improved in riding and using a spear. Lysander continued to get into arguments with Luke over how much swordfighting I should do. I tried to just stay out of it which was not easy given I was the topic of their fights. The naiads finally taught me how to finish weaving a basket, and I could play a few different songs on guitar along with all the major and minor scales and arpeggios. Darryl switched to covering how to read better in English with dyslexia at the end of classes instead of continuing with Greek.

“So,” Lysander said to me with a bright grin one evening after dinner when there wasn’t a sing along or a jam session. “We’ve got a surprise for you.”

“What sort of surprise?” I asked, wary because Castor and Pollux had sat with me, and they were wearing matching grins, too.

“If I told you then it wouldn’t be a surprise now would it?” he asked before taking mercy on me. “It’s good, I promise.”

“Alright,” I said.

He led me down to the beach with Castor and Pollux trailing behind us. There were blankets spread out on the beach, and cabins seven and nine were all there, plus Darryl and Annabeth, and Emmeline, and even Andrew though he had Bea sitting awful close to him so maybe he was only here for that.

“Happy birthday!” Annabeth shouted.

Eugene set off a party popper that cracked a lot louder than normal and blasted shiny blue and green confetti everywhere.

“It’s not my birthday,” I told her.

“I know, but the real day is after we’ll all have left, and tomorrow we have to do the whole bead ceremony, so this was the best we could do,” she explained then moved aside. “We got cake.”

She held her hands out towards a sheet cake someone had really poorly written ‘Happy Birthday Percy’ on with my name crammed in at the bottom.

I stared at it. Lysander shifted closer to me, settling a hand on my shoulder.

“Um,” Annabeth said. “Do you not like it? I didn’t actually ask if you liked cake.”

“No, it’s great,” I said, trying really hard not to cry. “Just surprised.”

I had a summer birthday which made it a little awkward for birthday parties. All the expulsions hadn’t helped either.

“Wish Grover was here,” I said.

“I know, but we’re all here,” Annabeth said, gesturing to the whole group.

“Can we eat now?” Sammy asked.

I laughed. “Yeah, let’s have cake.”

“Alright, I’m cutting it before anyone starts complaining about sizes,” Darryl said. “We’ll do gifts after.”

“You got me stuff?” I asked. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, we did,” Aislinn said. “That’s how birthday parties work, duh.”

“Okay, sorry for getting it wrong,” I said.

“It’s okay. You’re forgiven,” she said, making the counselors laugh.

Everyone started telling me happy birthday as Darryl cut the cake and started passing plates around. I fidgeted under the attention, but I stuck it out since they’d all showed up to do something nice for me. The cake was even half decent tasting. It was gonna suck having to go from what the nymphs prepared here to regular school cafeteria food. If I picked that at all.

“Us first,” Sammy said once most people had gotten through their slices of cake.

“Sammy,” Lysander scolded.

“It’s fine,” I told him, and he let it go.

Sammy shoved a small, poorly wrapped package towards me. “It’s from me Aislinn, and Will.”

I pulled the paper off to reveal a pocket sized paperback of Beatles sheet music. “Oh, cool,” I said, already opening it to start looking at the first song.

“We’ve lost him,” Darryl said.

“Huh?” I asked, looking up.

“Nothing,” she said, smiling at me.

“Thanks,” I told Sammy, Aislinn, and Will. “I guess I’ll have to keep it safe until next year.”

“Why until next year?” Aislinn asked.

“Well, I have to give the guitar back when you guys go,” I said.

All the Apollo kids looked at me weird.

“No, the guitar you picked out is yours,” Lysander said. “Permanently. Like Dad would probably be offended if you gave it back.”

“But I’m not like,” I trailed off, making a circular motion towards them.

“Don’t even bother,” Andrew said. “My first guitar was from cabin seven. It’s just what they do.”

“Oh,” I said. “Thanks then I guess.”

“What’s most important is that it gets used,” Lysander said. “It doesn’t deserve to sit in a case forever.”

I grinned. “Don’t worry. I just got a whole bunch of Beatles songs to learn.”

“Don’t expect anything from me,” Andrew said, ruining the moment. “I already got you the watch-shield.”

“Thanks,” I told him.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

“Made our lives difficult, though,” Helga said. “Hard to make something that’s not too awkward for the mortal world when he’s already got a sword and shield.”

“Not my problem,” Andrew said, grinning smugly at her. “Shoulda done it first.”

“We came up with this,” Beckendorf said, passing a square package around the group to me.

I opened it up, and it looked like a thick bronze floor tile. “Uh, what is it?”

“Trap for monsters,” Holton said. “Stick it under your welcome mat. Won’t trap the mortals, just the monsters.”

“Oh, that’s pretty sweet,” I said. “Does it kill them or do I still have to do that?”

“It’s manual,” Helga said. “We wanted to keep it low profile so that means you have to kill anything caught in it and reset it afterwards.”

“Thanks,” I said because this would legitimately help if I went home. “Seriously.”

“You’re welcome,” she said proudly.

“This is from me and Darryl,” Annabeth said, passing a lumpy gift over to me.

I opened it up and pulled out a t-shirt. Except it wasn’t a normal one. It felt different from polyester. I held it up unfolded in front of me. It was several sizes too large, and it had a green embroidered shark in the center of it.

“It’s all natural materials, but we updated the silhouette so you could wear it more casually,” Annabeth said.

“We dyed both the fabric and the thread with the seaweed you brought us. We couldn’t get a good blue out of it, but we tried,” Darryl said. “We made it a little big so you could get more wear out of it.”

“It’s really nice,” I said. “But did it have to be a shark?”

“What’s wrong with a shark, baby shark?” Andrew asked. “You don’t like the nickname I hand picked out for you?”

“No, I don’t,” I told him.

He laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure it sucks getting a whole shirt out of it.”

I sighed and turned to Annabeth and Darryl. “Thanks for the shirt. Hopefully I can show the goddess of the gifts of the sea what you did with seaweed I got from her.”

“Now that is a mouthful,” Andrew commented.

“I don’t know, she didn’t really give me a convenient epithet,” I said.

“I’m sure we can survive an awkward name,” Darryl said, shooting Andrew a look.

He shrugged.

“This is from the rest of our cabin,” Lysander said, offering me one last gift.

I ripped the paper off to reveal a CD case. I opened it to find it already half full.

“I handled the guitar stuff,” Lysander said as I started flipping through them. “Hendrix, Santana, Beatles, Stones, Queen, Zeppelin, Derek and the Dominoes, Pink Floyd, Heart, Allman Brothers, Eagles, BB King, Muddy Waters, Black Sabbath, Vai, Prince, a lot of stuff from some different genres to cover your bases though obviously there’s way more than that.”

“I just did Genesis because I didn’t know what else to do,” Michael said with a shrug. “Too many choices.”

“I can’t remember what I picked,” Lee said. “It’s either Red Hot Chili Peppers or White Stripes. Or both.”

“I had to go with something different so I put a Madonna album in there,” Rosalind said with a laugh. “I think she’s supposed to have a new one coming out this year.”

“Oh, I did the Runaways and Joan Jett so I didn’t really get that far away,” Bea said, making a so-so motion with her hand.

“Those are solid choices though,” Rosalind said, nodding.

“I was legally required to put a Sting album in there,” Gordie said, getting a few laughs.

“Thanks, really, it’s a lot of music,” I said, still flipping through the CDs.

I’d never had a proper collection before, just listened to whatever was on the radio. I didn’t exactly have the extra cash to burn on getting them all, and I wouldn’t have really been able to listen to them at home or at boarding school. Maybe I could now that Gabe wasn’t going to be around, and I had my own cabin here.

“Don’t judge us,” Castor said as he handed me a small rectangular gift.

“We had to go through our dad to get this so,” Pollux said.

I took the gift and ripped off the paper. “You got me A Midsummer’s Night Dream?”

“It’s got translations,” Castor offered. “We tried other options, and he nearly made us give you a collection of all of Shakespeare’s plays.”

“The thing’s like five inches thick printed on bible paper,” Pollux said, holding up his hands a few inches apart. “How would you even take it home?”

“It’s fine,” I assured them. “Promise. I didn’t catch all the jokes before so thanks, really.”

“Sweet,” Pollux said, relieved.

He held up his hand, and Castor gave him a high five.

Emmeline passed her gift around the group. It was lumpy like Darryl’s and Annabeth’s, but it was much smaller. I opened it to find a pair of gloves.

“There’s not much gear you could keep with you that we didn’t already order,” she explained. “These were a good solution.”

“Riding gloves?” I asked. I turned them over and found my initials embroidered on them.

“Yeah, you’ve got your own now,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said, trying one on. They felt soft inside.

“You’re welcome,” she said.

Everyone hung around for a little longer before we had to start packing up and head back to our cabins. The next day, we didn’t have our normal classes and activities. People were running around packing up or putting things away and getting contact information. Annabeth was organized and had an actual address book for collecting emails, but I stole a pen and paper from the Arts and Crafts Center and made everyone write their info down on that. I carefully folded it and put it into my backpack afterwards.

We had another feast at dinner that night though no one wore any laurel wreaths. I burned extra offerings that night. I had only been making them to my father, but this time I also gave one to Apollo for the guitar and just for getting to be at camp the whole summer. I hesitated, but in the end I did give an offering to Hades. He’d kept his word and gave me my mother back.

I sat down back at table three alone. Castor and Pollux sat with Mr. D since they were going back home to their mom. All the Apollo kids took extra long getting through their offerings. I ate slowly, trying not to look too much at everyone else, but it’s not like I had any conversations going on to distract me.

Once we finished eating, we all headed down to the bonfire together. I spotted the other counselors handing out beads to the rest of their cabins. I didn’t have anything on me. I’d missed the memo entirely. I tried to catch Darryl’s eye since she’s always made sure that I didn’t accidentally miss a counselor’s meeting all summer, but she didn’t turn towards me.

“Here we are,” Lysander said, sitting down right next to me. “Your camp necklace and your first official bead.”

He held out a plain brown leather cord, tied to be adjustable and to add more beads later.

“Thanks,” I said, taking it from him to get a better look at the bead.

At first, it looked entirely black. Then I rotated it and saw the bright green trident painted on it.

“No way, don’t tell me—,”

“The choice for the bead design this year was unanimous,” Luke announced from the other side of the fire near the rest of cabin eleven. “This bead commemorates Percy Jackson, son of the sea god, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!”

Everyone cheered and clapped, and I tried not to feel like my whole face was burning.

“Sorry for the no heads up,” Lysander, putting his hand on my shoulder. “You’re not allowed to vote when you’re up as one of the options for the bead. Not that it would have mattered much this time. There wasn’t even really any competition.”

“But I’m not some hero or whatever,” I sighed, frustratedly tugging on a chunk of my hair with my free hand. “I just wanted my mom back.”

“I know, but intent’s not the only thing that matters,” Lysander said, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “You still successfully completed a very difficult quest at a very young age. You’re allowed to be proud of your accomplishments.”

“Thanks,” I said, finally putting the necklace over my head. “For everything.”

“Yeah, no problem,” he said with a bright grin.

He started to pull his hand away and turn towards the fire, and I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing him in a hug.

“Hey, hey,” he said soothingly, wrapping his arm around my back. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ll miss you,” I whispered.

Lysander not coming back to camp sounded like the worst thing I’d ever heard of. It wasn’t the same as when my mom was down in the Underworld. I’d been sure I could go down there and get her back. It didn’t quite work out that way, but it still happened. She was safely back at home.

I couldn’t rescue Lysander from going to college, from having a life where we just didn’t see each other again.

“You can still talk to me. You’ve got my email,” Lysander said then leaned his head down towards mine and spoke more quietly. “Besides, I have a feeling we’ll see each other again.”

I nodded and reluctantly let him go.

Chapter Text

The next morning, I received a form letter.

Dear Peter Johnson,

If you intend to stay at Camp Half-Blood year round, you must inform the Big House by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabin. Cleaning harpies will begin work at sundown. They will be authorized to remove any unregistered campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit.

Best regards,

Mr. D
Camp Director, Olympian Council #12

My deadline had finally arrived. It should be easy. On one hand, no one wanted to stay at camp year round, and on the other was living with my mom without any horrible stepfather to butt in. Cabin nine had even given me a way to safely stay with her for the year.

I walked outside, and it looked like half the camp was gathered around Half-Blood Hill. I could see a number of campers meeting up with adults and other kids I’d never seen before at the top near Thalia’s pine tree. Then down in the valley was a much smaller crowd of kids. I recognized Annabeth and Will there, and even Clarisse though she stood well away from them.

“You made your decision?” Annabeth asked.

Will looked up at me anxiously.

I shook my head. “I’ve still got a couple hours to think about it.”

“That’s not that long, Percy,” Annabeth said, sounding a lot like Darryl.

“Percy, hey, there you are.”

I turned to find Lysander and Rosalind approaching us with all of their belongings. Rosalind gave my hair a ruffle.

“Gordie’s already left like at the crack of dawn so he says bye. Our mom’s here so we’ve got to head out now, but hey, good luck with the school year and everything,” she told me, offering me a sunny smile before continuing on to say goodbye to Will.

Lysander had to put down what he was carrying to be able to hug me. I couldn’t even hug him back properly with the bag on his back.

“It’s okay,” he told me. “Whatever you decide. It’s the right choice for you. You made it all the way to the Underworld and back. You can handle anything.”

I laughed, trying to pretend it didn’t sound a little strangled.

He pulled back from the hug, setting both of his hands on my shoulders. “You have my email. You can message me any time, whether it’s about guitars or math homework or anything else, okay?”

“Got it,” I said, giving him a nod. “Are you actually any good at math?”

He laughed. “Believe it or not, knowing Greek actually helps with the math. And my older sister’s a pretty good tutor so, I’ve got a few tricks, yeah.”

“There’s Greek letters in math?” I asked, dismayed. “Like more than pi?”

“Uh, yeah, sorry to burst your bubble, if you go far enough, you’re gonna use, like, all of them,” Lysander said.

“But how?” I asked because I’d barely even seen pre-algebra in school.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said, patting my shoulder. “Just focus on learning to solve for x or whatever it is you learn in middle school.”

“Yeah, sure, okay.”

“You’ll be fine. It’s a long ways away from middle school. Have a good year,” he told me.

He moved onto Will like Rosalind had, bending down to hug him. Will clung to him, hiding his face in Lysander’s neck.

I turned away, and Annabeth was giving me a weird look.

“I’m just gonna take a walk,” I told her. “Help me decide.”

I barely made it five steps before Darryl caught me.

“Percy, hey,” she said, dropping her things to give me a hug. “I hope you have a good school year.”

“You too,” I told her. “Do I email you if I have any econ questions?”

She laughed, pulling back from the hug. “I don’t think you study econ in middle school, but if you need any help with dyslexia stuff or maybe English more generally? I can probably help.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“You’ll be okay,” she said, giving my arm a comforting squeeze before leaning in. “You can still pray to Phoebus for school stuff. He can’t do it for you, obviously, but I don’t know, it makes me feel calmer before tests.”

“Really?” I asked as she straightened up. “You don’t pray to your mom?”

Darryl chuckled. “Mom’s the goddess of wisdom, Phoebus is knowledge. I figure that means he covers short term memory, and Mom would definitely never bless me over an all-nighter anyways.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“You’re gonna be fine,” she assured me. “I gotta go talk to Annabeth before I head out, but seriously, don’t forget to email me if you need anything.”

“I got it,” I promised.

“Okay, good, bye Percy,” she said, moving on to talk to Annabeth. 

I walked the fields for a little bit, more pacing and keeping an eye on the Big House each time I made a turn. I looked up Half-Blood Hill as I neared it on my loop, trying to spot Argus and if he was taking another group of kids to the airport or the city. I only saw a bunch of unfamiliar families then an empty gap then two more people. They looked like somebody’s parents until I took a closer look as I approached the foot of the hill and realized that it was Lysander and Darryl standing way closer together than just talking to each other required.

I quickly turned the other way. I could go to the arena. No one else would be there.

Except there was. I spotted the gym bag first then saw Luke hacking away at the dummies. He couldn’t be using a celestial bronze blade as he was actually damaging them. He had to have been going at it for a while based on the decapitated straw heads and the sweat showing through his orange camp shirt. He finished the line of dummies with brutal grace. How had a guy who could fight like this fail at his quest?

When he finished, he lowered his sword and went to reach for the first destroyed dummy. He paused. “Percy.”

“Sorry,” I said automatically. “I was just—,”

“It’s fine. I was just doing some last minute practice,” he said.

“Those dummies won’t be bothering anyone anymore,” I said to make it less awkward.

He shrugged. “They make new ones every summer.”

I caught the glimmer of his blade. I’d never seen it before. It had been formed out of two metals, one side bronze and the other steel.

“Like it?” Luke asked, holding it out to show me. “This is Backbiter.”

“Backbiter?” I asked.

He twisted the blade in his hand, the light shining off one half and then the other. “Celestial bronze and steel together. Works on both mortals and immortals.”

I frowned down at the blade. Chiron had said that heroes shouldn’t harm mortals. I’d come close to stabbing Gabe, but with a ball point pen, not a steel sword. I left Medusa’s head for my mother. But she wasn’t a hero. She was a mortal, facing a man bigger and stronger and worse than she was.

“I didn’t know they could make weapons like that,” I said.

“They probably can’t,” Luke said, mouth curving up into a smile. “It’s a one of a kind.”

If cabin nine couldn’t make it, then where had Luke gotten it from?

“Listen,” Luke said, sheathing the sword. “I was gonna come looking for you, give you some parting wisdom. What do you say to checking out the woods one last time and finding something to fight seeing as it’s my last time at camp and all?”

“We’re not allowed in the woods,” I pointed out. We hadn’t ever figured out who the summoner was. I just stayed out of the woods along with all the rest of the counselors.

Luke scoffed. “What are you, a tattle tale? Pretty much all the counselors are gone now. You’re safe.”

“I don’t think—,”

“Come on,” he cajoled as he went to his gym bag. He unzipped it and pulled out a six pack of Cokes. “Drinks on me.”

“Where’d you get that?” I asked.

The only way to get soda in camp was through asking the goblets, and it just didn’t taste the same as the good stuff that came out of a can.

“Son of the god of thieves,” he said with a grin.

“Yeah, okay, sure,” I said. I hadn’t had a proper Coke in months, and I couldn’t just pass that up.

“Let’s go then,” he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

It was moderately cooler in the shade of the trees. We followed a couple of the trails, walked a few yards deeper off the path, but we still hadn’t found any monsters by the time we reached the creek. The whole place looked pretty different in the daylight than it had during capture the flag, less spooky and way less likely to have hellhounds. Luke took a seat on a boulder out of direct sunlight, and I joined him.

“You miss being on a quest?” Luke asked as he passed me a coke.

“With monsters attacking me every three feet?” I asked, cracking the can open and taking a sip. “Yeah, kinda, just don’t tell Lysander.”

“Never,” Luke promised.

“What about you?” I asked.

He clenched his jaw, the muscle in his cheek contracting and causing his scar to look deeper than usual. He shifted his face away from me, more of it falling into the shadows.

“I’ve lived at Half-Blood Hill year round since I was fourteen. Ever since Thalia,” he paused. “Well, you know. I trained and trained and trained. I never got to be a normal teenager out in the real world. Then they threw me one quest, and when I came back, it was like okay, ride’s over, have a nice life.”

He chugged the last of his coke. He crushed the can in his fist then tossed it into the creek. I stared at him open mouthed. I’d been hanging out with the naiads all summer. They told me how gross pollution and litter felt in their waters, how much it upset them when campers were careless. I’d agreed with them when they told me the story of the time they’d put mud in the bed of a Demeter camper a couple decades ago because they thought it’d been okay to experiment with fertilizer without caring about the run off’s effect on the lake.

“Hey, you can’t do that,” I snapped at him. “Just because you’re leaving doesn’t make it okay for you to leave your trash behind.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t plan to leave loose ends,” he said then snapped his fingers.

A small fire burned a hole in the ground at my feet. A pitch black creature with little legs crawled out. A spider. Then I saw its curled tail. It was a scorpion.

I reached for my pocket.

“I wouldn’t,” Luke said. “Pit scorpions can jump up to fifteen feet. Its stinger can pierce right through your clothes. You’ll be dead in sixty seconds.”

“What are you—,”

You will be betrayed by the one who calls you a friend.

The third line of the prophecy. Everything had been going so well for me. The only thing I’d needed to figure out was whether I was going to go home to my mom or not. Now my distraction had come around to bite me. Or sting me, I guess.

“You,” I said. “It was you.”

Luke stood up from the bolder. The scorpion ignored him, climbing up onto the toe of my shoe.

“I learned a lot when I finally got out of here,” he said, offering a slight smile as if he could still be friendly after all this. “Did you feel it, the darkness gathering, the monsters growing stronger? Didn’t you see how useless it all is? The heroics are all just to serve the gods petty whims? They should’ve been overthrown thousands of years ago, but they’ve hung on, thanks to us half bloods.”

“Luke, you’re talking about our parents,” I said, “Aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, they’re our family.”

“And what do we have to show for it?” he asked, laughing harshly. “Their blood is supposed to make me love them? Their precious western civilization is a disease. It’s killing the world. The only way to stop it is to burn it to the ground, start over with something more honest.”

I shook my head. “You’re completely insane. You’re going to burn it all down because of one bad quest?”

“One bad quest?” Luke spat, hand going to Backbiter even though the scorpion had already crawled onto my pant leg. “You think that’s all this is? Everything that’s been done to me? One bad quest?”

“It’s not you,” I said. I’d seen what had happened to Ares. “It’s Kronos. He’s tricking you into serving him.”

The air chilled, and the shadows grew darker.

Luke pulled back slightly. He sounded calmer as he said, “You should be careful with names.”

“He spoke to you, told you to take the bolt and the helm,” I said.

Luke gave me a sympathetic look, like I was a damn puppy who’d peed on the floor without knowing any better. “He spoke to you, too. You should have listened to him.”

“He’s brainwashing you, lying to you.”

“You’re wrong,” he snapped. “He knows my talents are being wasted. You know what my quest was, Percy? My father told me to steal a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides and return it to Olympus. After all the training I’d done, that’s the best he could come up with.”

“It’s not like that’s easy,” I said. “Heracles did it.”

“Exactly. Where’s the glory in repeating what others have done? All the gods know how to do is replay their past. My heart wasn’t in it. The dragon in the garden gave me this,” he said, jabbing his finger towards the scar on his cheek. “And when I came back, all I got was pity. I wanted to pull Olympus down stone by stone right then, but I bided my time. I began to dream of Kronos. He convinced me to steal something worthwhile, something no hero had ever had the courage to take. You wouldn’t believe how easy it was. The Olympians are so arrogant; they never dreamed someone would dare steal from them. Their security is horrible. I was halfway across New Jersey before I heard the storms rumbling.”

The scorpion had climbed up onto my knee.

“Why didn’t you bring them to Kronos then?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level.

Luke scowled. “I got overconfident. The king sent his sons and daughters to find the stolen bolt, and it was the god of war who caught me, of all gods. I could have beaten him, I know it, but he tricked me. He disarmed me and took the helm and bolt, threatened to return them to Olympus and burn me alive.”

Then his scowl lightened. “Then Kronos’s voice came to me and told me what to say. I put the idea of a great war between the gods in his head. I told him all he had to do was hide them for a little while and watch it all come crumbling down. I could tell he was hooked. He let me go, and I made it back to Olympus without anyone noticing I was gone.”

Then Luke drew his sword and I almost shifted away when I saw the scorpion move on my knee. I froze. Luke continued running his thumb down the flat of the blade like he was hypnotized.

“Afterwards, the Lord of the Titans, h-he punished me. With nightmares. I swore not to fail again. Back at Camp Half-Blood, in my dreams, I was told that a new hero would arrive, one who could be tricked into taking the bolt and the helm the rest of the way to Tartarus.”

“That’s why you summoned the hellhound,” I said.

Luke nodded, still not looking up from the blade. “We had to make Chiron think the camp wasn’t safe for you so he would start you on your quest. We just had to make him think his fears about Hades were real.”

“You cursed the shoes, too,” I said. “They were supposed to drag me and the backpack into Tartarus.”

“And they would have if you’d actually worn them, but you gave them to that stupid satyr,” he said, his face twisting into a sneer. “Grover messes up everything he touches. He even confused the curse.”

But it wasn’t Grover. It was Luke. If he had thought for two seconds, he would have never given a son of Poseidon on Zeus’s bad side shoes that took him into the air.

Luke finally lowered his fancy one of a kind blade to look at the scorpion sitting on my thigh. “You should have died in Tartarus, but don’t worry, I’ll leave you with my little friend to set things right.”

“Thalia gave her life to save you,” I said, baring my teeth at him. “And this is how you repay her?”

“Don’t talk about her!” he raged at me. “The gods let her die! I saw the aftermath of what Phoebus did. He could have done it at any time, but he failed! He left her there for the king to turn her into a tree!”

“And Kronos will treat her any better?” I asked. “You’re being used, worse than anything the gods ever did. Don’t listen to him.”

“I’m being used?” he asked, gesturing to himself before pointing at me. “Look at yourself. What has your dad ever done for you? Got you nearly sent to the Underworld for his pride, that’s it. Kronos will rise. You’ve barely even delayed his plans. He will cast the Olympians into Tartarus. The mortals will be sent back to their caves and only the strongest will prosper.”

“You think you’re one of them?” I asked. “Only one of us has beaten the god of war so why don’t you call off this bug and prove you deserve to be called the strongest.”

Luke blinked, looking like he might strike me down himself, and then his expression relaxed.

“Nice try, Percy,” he said, voice calm. “But I’m not the god of war. You can’t bait me. My lord is waiting, and he’s got plenty of quests for me to undertake.”

“Luke—,”

“Goodbye,” he said with a grin. “There is a new Golden Age coming. You won’t be part of it.”

He slashed Backbiter in an arc, cutting a strip of darkness in the air. He walked through it, and it closed behind him.

The scorpion lunged.

I swatted it away with my hand and uncapped my sword. It jumped again, and I cut it in half. I breathed out a sigh of relief then spotted a large red welt on my palm. Yellow pus already oozed out of it. My ears pounded, and my vision blurred.

The water. I stumbled over to the creek, falling down and shoving my hand into the water. My hand throbbed, and my vision grew darker. Sixty seconds, Luke had said. I didn’t have time.

“Help,” I croaked, “Please…”

No one would be able to find me in the woods while everyone was busy rejoining their families. A monster could find me or my body, and no one would know.

“…Apollo.”

Everything spun, and I was going to puke.

“Perseus,” an urgent voice said.

My hand was pulled from the water. No, no, no, I needed the water to live.

“This will hurt, I’m sorry,” the voice said as something wrapped completely around my hand.

Pain, bright burning pain, worse than Clarisse’s electric spear. It consumed my hand then streaked up my arm and throughout my whole body. I screamed.

It was a relief when everything went black.

Chapter Text

I opened my eyes to the white ceiling of the infirmary. I felt like I'd been run over, but my vision was clear, no pounding in my ears. I cast my eyes around and spotted Annabeth.

"Hey," I croaked.

"Percy," Annabeth said, jolting forward so she was more in my line of sight. She set a gentle hand on my shoulder. "We all freaked out when we saw Phoebus carrying you to the Big House. He said you nearly died."

"Yeah," I said. I hadn't been sure I'd be able to get to my feet ever again, to find anyone to help me.

"Phoebus was really mad," she said quietly. "Was he telling the truth? It was Luke?"

"Yeah, it was," I said because I didn't have the energy to lie.

Her face crumpled, but she didn't look surprised. She brushed away tears, and her voice was watery as she said, "He wasn't always like this, I promise. He was just...never the same after his quest."

"Luke is out there right now," I said. "I have to go after him."

"You will do no such thing."

I managed to turn my head towards Chiron, but he wasn't quite where I thought he would be. Instead of standing, he was seated in his magical wheelchair.

"I have to," I insisted.

"No, you don't," he said, rolling forward. He look exhausted with dark bags under his eyes and a slump to his shoulders. "Phoebus has already reported the incident to the council."

"But the king won't listen," I insisted. "He won't even let anyone talk about Kronos."

"And you believe that will stop Phoebus from looking?" Chiron asked, and I shut my mouth. "He is the sun god. He can search far farther than you can. However hard it is to hear, you are not ready. You cannot rush out for vengeance."

I looked down at my hand. It had been expertly wrapped in bandages. I tried to close my fingers, and my palm burned. I couldn't hold Riptide like this.

"Chiron," I said, "your prophecy from the Oracle, it was about Kronos wasn't it? Was I in it? Annabeth?"

Chiron glanced nervously skyward. "It is not my place to interpret—,"

"You've been ordered not to tell me about it, haven't you?"

Chiron sighed. "You will be a great hero, child. I will do my best to prepare you, but..."

He trailed off, glancing out the window. He shook his head. "The gods have their reasons, Percy. Knowing too much about your future is never a good thing."

"We can't just sit back and do nothing," I argued.

"We are not sitting back," Chiron said. "But you need to be more careful. Kronos wants you to become unraveled. He wants to cloud your thoughts with fear and anger. Do not give him what he wants. Train patiently. Your time will come."

"Assuming I live that long," I said, lifting my bandaged hand.

Chiron laid his hand on my ankle. "You'll have to trust us. You will live, but first you must decide your path for the coming year. I cannot tell you the right choice...but you must decide whether to stay at Camp Half-Blood year round or return to the mortal world for seventh grade and be a summer camper. I can give you an hour to decide, but you must make your decision."

I opened my mouth to argue, but he gave me a stern look.

He patted my ankle then rolled away.

I waited until he was gone to turn to Annabeth and ask, "Can you help me up? I need to go outside."

She frowned. "That's not a good idea."

I slid out if bed and nearly brained myself trying to stand as my legs were worse than when I tried to dismount from Nancy after learning how to post, but Annabeth caught me before I could fall too far. I struggled to get my feet under me even with her holding onto me.

"I told you," Annabeth scolded.

"I'm fine," I said.

I forced myself forward on step at a time. We found Argus standing guard at the door to the infirmary. He didn't force us to go back, just silently joined us.

I paused when we reached the hall just inside the foyer. There were scorch marks on the floor, radiating out from a single spot. If you tilted your head just right, it almost looked like there were footprints in the center.

"What happened?" I asked, "Did someone accidentally drop a fire or something?"

Annabeth shook her head, looking a little pale. "I told you. Phoebus was really mad. He didn't go fully divine, but he, uh, caught fire after he passed you over to Chiron."

"He did?" I asked, trying to reconstruct the scene in my head.

"Yeah, he reamed out Mr. D, too," she said quietly, glancing in the direction of his office deeper in the house. "Sounded like he'd been pushing him to find who had summoned the hellhound all summer, and I guess he took Mr. D not finding Luke as disobedience. He said he was going to tell the king."

"Like, he’s gonna go tattling to his dad?”

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Like he's bringing a suit forward to the king."

"That sounds really serious," I said.

"It is."

I sighed. "Help me get outside. Please."

"Alright," she said, readjusting my arm over her shoulders before guiding me out to the porch.

I felt completely wiped just making it there. I was sweating, and my legs were shaking, threatening to collapse under me. Annabeth dropped me down into a porch chair as nicely as she could.

Dusk had fallen. The camp looked totally deserted, no campers running around or chatting. No one played volleyball or canoed across the lake. The only movement was the wind in the trees and the glittering of sunlight on the Long Island Sound.

"What are you going to do?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Pretty sure Chiron wants me to stay for extra training, but I almost died. My mom can't come here. She wouldn't have ever seen me again."

Annabeth's lips twist. "If you go back, you won't try anything stupid, will you? At least not without sending me an Iris-message?"

I smiled. "I don't go looking for trouble. It just always finds me."

"Next summer, we'll hunt down Luke," she promised. "We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyways, agreed?"

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

She held out her left hand, and I shook it with my uninjured hand.

I turned towards Argus, "Would you be able to get me to cabin three to pack up?"

He nodded then came back with a wheelchair. I sighed but let Annabeth help settle me in it. Argus pushed me, and Annabeth walked beside me.

"Percy!"

Will came running down from cabin seven as we were passing it. He looked weird on his own without Sammy and Aislinn or any of his other siblings with him.

"You're okay," he said, throwing his arms around me. Then he pulled back and looked down at my bandaged hand.

"It's fine," I told him, but he reached for it. "I don't think you should be touching—,"

He wrapped both of his hands over mine. He started singing a song in ancient Greek that didn't sound anything like the campfire songs we'd been singing all summer.

"That should do it," he said then started unwrapping my bandages.

"Hey, what are you—,"

Pulling off the bandages didn't hurt like just bending my fingers had. Will finished removing them, revealing that my hand was totally fine. He tilted my hand towards him, inspecting it and prodding it.

"You should be fine, now," he said, letting go of me.

"What just happened?" I asked, pulling my hand back.

I had expected to only see a small scar from the puncture wound of the scorpion stinging me, but that wasn't the case. It looked like my palm had been burned, but a long time ago rather than within the last twenty four hours. I ran my hand over the skin, and I could feel the difference in texture.

"I healed you," Will said proudly. "Lysander says I'm really good at it."

"Uh, yeah, looks like," I said. "Can all of you do that? Like just sing and heal people?"

Will nodded. "We still have to learn all the other stuff if we wanna work in the infirmary, but we can just sing to Dad if we have to."

"If you have to?" I asked. "You're not gonna get in trouble for healing me when I wasn't like dying or something, are you?"

"No," Will said, shaking his head. "Lysander says not to use it more than nectar, but Dad's never said anything."

"Okay, good," I said relieved. “Uh, thanks, for healing me up then.”

Will looked around at Annabeth and Argus then back to me. "Are you staying?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm gonna go home."

"Oh," he said, his face falling. Then he rallied. "I can help you pack."

"You don't have to—,"

"It's fine, Gordie says you can't pack anyways," Will said, waving off my complaints and leading the way to cabin three. "Woah, this place is cool. Literally. You don’t get cold in here?”

"A little," I admitted as Argus pushed me over the threshold.

"I'm gonna tell Chiron you're leaving so he can call your mom to come pick you up," Annabeth told me. “I’ll be right back.”

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem," she said before heading back towards the Big House.

Will did a loop of the main room before joining me on the boy's side with Argus.

"Are you taking everything?" Will asked.

"Yeah, they’ll get rid of anything I don’t take,” I said.

"Got it," he said, pulling everything out from the drawers. He packed the hard stuff like the plate from the Hephaestus kids first. Then he folded up all my clothes like Gordie, just way less neatly. He made sure to wrap up the Minotaur horn in my riding pants to protect it, though.

Then Will turned to me with a sweatshirt and a pair of pajama pants. "Are these Lysander's?"

I smacked my forehead. "I totally forgot. I was supposed to give those back."

Will laughed. "I think it's okay. Lysander would have asked if he really needed them back."

Will managed to stuff everything into the backpack without busting a zipper, but it was close. "There."

"Thanks," I told him. "You can just put it on my lap."

Will carefully set it down on my legs. It was heavier than I thought it would be. I would definitely need something bigger than a backpack next year.

"Can we go back to the Big House?" I asked Argus.

He nodded and wheeled me back out of the cabin. Will came along, carrying my guitar in its case for me.

"Your mother is on her way to pick you up," Chiron informed me, Annabeth at his side.

"Thanks," I said, and my stomach growled before I could ask anything else.

"Let's get you some food," he said. "The rest of us ate while you were still sleeping.”

"I can do it," Will said, rushing to the kitchen.

"Is he allowed to do that?" I asked.

"He can make a can of soup," Chiron said with a hint of amusement. "But I will be watching over him.

Argus helped me to the dining room, and I was able to switch over to one of the chairs. Argus returned to standing guard at the door after tucking the wheelchair out of the way, but Annabeth sat down with me.

"How are you feeling?" she asked quietly.

"Tired," I said. "And hungry."

"It could be a lot worse," she said.

"I know," I said, opening and closing my hand. Even when fighting Ares, I hadn't felt that close to dying.

Will returned with a bowl of chicken noodle soup for me. I had to concentrate on getting the spoon into my mouth and not face-planting into the bowl out of exhaustion, but Annabeth and Will chatted with Chiron about what their first lessons for the school year would be.

After eating, I sat on the porch waiting for my mom. I must have passed out because it felt like I had been there for two seconds before Annabeth was shaking my shoulder and telling me, "Your mom's here."

I blinked at her a few times. "Oh, good."

I was able to walk up the hill to meet her on my own, but Annabeth had to carry my backpack, and Will carried my guitar.

"Percy!"

My mom rushed to me as soon as I got over the border. She squeezed me as tight as she could then pulled back to examine my face, brushing back my hair. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," I told her. "I'm just tired."

"Okay," she said, pressing a kiss to my forehead before letting go.

"Mom, this is Annabeth and Will. I told you about them before," I said.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Jackson," Annabeth said with a smile.

"Hi, Mrs. Jackson," Will echoed.

My mom leaned down towards me to quietly ask, "Do all of you look like little mini-me's of your fathers?"

"Not all of us," Will said.

"But divine traits usually do win out," Annabeth said. "I can take Percy's backpack to the car if you want. It's kinda heavy."

"No, it's okay, I got it," my mom said.

Annabeth transferred the backpack over to my mom who nearly dropped it.

"Mom, careful, I've got CDs in there," I said, reaching out for it even though I was too weak and slow to do anything about it.

"I know, but it's actually heavy," she said. "What exactly do you have packed in here?"

"Everything," Will said proudly. "I got all of it to fit in there."

"Okay then," she said then hefted the bag onto her back. “Good job, Will.”

"You want me to bring the guitar?" Will asked, smiling brightly.

"The guitar's yours?" my mom asked me.

"Yeah, Lysander said to keep it," I said.

"We have a million," Will said with a nod.

"Okay then, yes, if you could bring the guitar that would be great," she said.

"Got it," Will said, heading down the hill.

"I'll see you next summer," Annabeth said, holding out her arms.

I hugged her. "You bet. Don't have too much fun without me."

"Never," she said then stepped back.

I had to go slow to make sure I didn't trip over anything on my way down the hill to the road. Mom stuck close to me. I didn't recognize the car on the road, just a basic Mazda that looked like it might be second hand. Mom popped the trunk, and Will safely stored the guitar in it. Mom set my backpack down on the floor in the backseat where it wouldn't move.

"Will—,"

I stopped as he threw his arm around me.

"Okay, okay," I said, patting him on the back. "I'm not dying, but don't knock me over."

Will hugged me tighter. "I'll miss you."

"Oh," I said dumbly. He'd been nice to me like healing my hand and packing up my stuff, but he'd gotten so mad about everything with his mom. I guess I just hadn't expected him to do anything like this. "I'll miss you, too. You've got my email right? You can send me whatever, and I'll be back next year, promise, okay?"

I'd basically told him what Lysander had told me.

Will nodded, his head moving against my shoulder.

"Okay," I said, patting his back.

Eventually, he let go. "Bye," he said quickly then rushed up the hill.

I waved to him and Annabeth before getting into the passenger seat beside my mom.

"So," she said once we started driving back towards New York. "Did you decide to adopt a little brother or?"

"No," I said quickly, my cheeks burning. I sunk down in the seat. "It might actually be the other way around. I think Lysander adopted me, and if he didn't, Sammy definitely will."

"Sammy's their sister, right?"

"Yeah, she's Will's age so ten, I think? I didn't actually ask her," I said then shook my head. "Anyways, she basically said if I didn't want to go back to normal school that Phoebus and Chiron would take care of me."

"I can't believe she would just try to steal my baby like that," she said, tsking.

"Mom," I complained. "She was being nice. She's like ten."

"Hm," she said consideringly. "Well, if Phoebus ever shows up trying to adopt you, tell him he has to go through me."

"What, Mom, Phoebus isn't going to adopt me," I said, putting my hands over my face. "Weren't you the one saying I shouldn't fight gods?"

"I'm an adult. I can make that kind of decision."

"Mom,” I groaned.

"Oh, come on, Percy," she said, and I could hear her smiling even though I couldn't see it in the dark between the highway streetlights. "I wouldn't fist fight him. I'd just take it up with the king."

"That's worse,” I said, slouching down in my seat.

She laughed at me, reaching over one handedly to pet my hair. "What? You think I'm gonna let anyone steal my baby from me? Not a chance."

I groaned again.

"It's good you made friends," she then said, all teasing gone from her tone as she pulled her hand back. "I hope you can make more at the new school."

"Maybe," I said because most kids when asked what they did over summer break didn't answer with my cousin's kid tried to kill me so he could raise my grandfather out of Tartarus.

"You gonna play me any guitar?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, of course," I said, pulling my hands from my face. "I gotta at least try to keep up with Sammy and Will."

"I'm sure you can do it if you put your mind to it," she said.

"Mhhm," I said because she always said things like that, but it might actually work out this time.

I fell asleep before we reached the city limits.

Chapter Text

I woke to my mom shoving at my shoulder.

"Oh, good, I was getting worried for a moment," she said, switching to brushing back my hair. "Let's get you to a real bed, okay?”

I turned my head to face forward and immediately felt the consequences of sleeping with my head on my shoulder in a car. I winced and rubbed at the side of my neck. Maybe I could sneak in a shower before sleeping.

"Come on," Mom said as she climbed out of the car.

I sighed, rubbed my face, and followed her out. She had parked the car in a designated spot in an underground garage. It didn't look any different from any other underground garage I'd ever been in.

Mom hefted my backpack onto her back before going to grab my guitar from the trunk. She locked the car after, and I followed her to a small elevator. We only went up a few floors before she led us out into a long hall. She stopped in front of a door numbered the same as the parking spot.

"Here we are," she said quietly as she unlocked the door and led me inside.

It was way nicer than our last place. Aside from being clean, there was an actual hall closet. The windows in the living room were much bigger with real curtains. I couldn't spot any obvious landlord specials. My mom had even picked up something from her brush with the arts world because the furniture was all match-y match-y. Or maybe she had just been able to buy a set for once instead of buying bits and pieces second hand. 

"Your room's this way," she said, leading me over to a plain white door.

She opened it to a bedroom a little larger than my last. She'd upgraded me to a full bed from a twin and gotten a dresser and little desk that matched the bed frame. The new bedding was blue plaid, and the table lamp had an almost matching shade. All the room needed were some posters or something to cover up the boring, pure white walls.

"How much money did you get for the sculpture?" I asked because this was so many things to buy. Rent had to be paid monthly. Tuition had to be paid per semester.

"A lot, but I got a new job, too," she said.

"You did?" I asked.

"Yeah, I don’t think I officially had it when I sent you my letter, but I met a lot of people when I went to sell the sculpture," she explained as she set down my bag and guitar at the foot of the bed. "I just got started talking to people and when they asked about what I did, I just thought, I don't have Gabe anymore. I don't have to keep working in a candy store. So I told them I was searching for a new position and somehow I ended up interviewing and now I'm what they call an administrative assistant, but it’s really just being a secretary."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, it pays practically double what the candy store did," she said and smiled. "They'll even let me switch to part time when I start classes."

"That's great," I said, giving her a hug. "Congratulations."

Mom sighed, squeezing me tight. "Things will be better. I promise.”

I nodded and couldn’t stop myself from yawning. "I think I need to sleep.”

"Okay, and you can sleep in tomorrow," she told me as she pulled back. "We'll do pancakes since it's Saturday."

"Okay," I said. "With chocolate chips?"

"On some of them," she agreed.

"Goodnight," I told her.

"Goodnight," she said, kissing my head before leaving.

I was lazy getting ready for bed, basically only pulling off my clothes then climbing in. I closed my eyes, expecting to nod off as fast as I had in the car, but something was off. The sheets felt weird. They had a faint new smell to them. Even the pillow wasn't my old one that smelled like my head.

I crawled out of bed, opening my backpack in the dark. I had to dig a little, but eventually I pulled out Lysander's sweatshirt. It smelled more like me since I'd taken to wearing it at night around cabin three. I put it on and got back in bed. I pulled the hood around to my face to smell that rather than the bedding, and fell asleep.

Sleeping in and having pancakes for breakfast turned out to be a mistake when kind of on a whim I checked my email on the computer mom had gotten for her future classes and to type up her novel when the time came. I rarely got emails so my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw my unread email count had reached triple digits. I had to go back a couple pages to find where it had all started.

The first message had been from Chiron. I had been added to an email list for all the counselors. He had explained the situation about Luke and assured everyone that I was alright and returning home to my mother.

What followed were reactions and arguments. Both Lysander and Darryl had emailed me separately to ask if I was really alright. Andrew had replied all to Chiron's email to call Luke several colorful names in addition to a pathetic coward. He then swore vengeance and that we should track him down right now.

Lysander then responded to him saying he couldn't cut school. Nearly everyone else responded that they also couldn't leave, and Christie, the Demeter counselor, asked Andrew how he thought he was going to be able to find Luke when he had no tracking skills to speak of. Andrew then cursed the timing and asked Lysander if he could borrow Gordie. Lysander assured him that he definitely could not because both of his dads would kill Andrew if Gordie missed any school.

Then Darryl asked what was going on with Hermes cabin, if anyone had told them. Chiron answered her that he had messaged the Stoll brothers, the two sons of Hermes in line after Luke to become counselors, separately to inform them of what happened. They'd decided to tell the cabin themselves.

I stopped trying to read the reams of back and forths in the email list and checked if I had emails from anyone else. I did. One. From Cam. I opened it. It only said one thing.

is it true?

No greeting, no sign off, no mention of what it was referring to.

I wrote back, careful to make sure the spelling was right, it is sorry

Then I told Lysander and Darryl I was okay back home with my mom. I even found an email from Andrew telling me not to worry, he'd kick Luke so deep into the Earth he'd come out in China even though he was losing the battle in the main email thread to be allowed to go chase him down on his own. I thanked him anyways.

I nearly fell asleep at the computer and figured that was a sign to stop.

"You alright?" my mom asked when I joined her on the couch. I peaked at her book cover to see it was about writing fiction. "You were at the computer a long time."

"Chiron emailed the other counselors about what happened so everyone's mad now, and I got a million emails," I said then yawned loudly, covering my mouth with my hand.

"You can take a nap," she told me.

"I'm fine," I said. "You wanna watch a movie? You kept our DVDs, right?"

"Yeah, of course, what do you want to watch?" she asked, setting her book down. She'd kept the coffee table which made sense seeing as it had been hers to begin with unlike Gabe's shitty couch.

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," I said.

"Alright," she said, picking it out from underneath the new media console and putting it on.

She came back to sit with me, and I fell asleep not even five minutes in.

The next day, I pulled out my birthday gift from cabin nine to find somewhere to put it.

“You had that in your backpack?” my mom asked me.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“No wonder it was so heavy,” she said. “What even is it?”

“It’s a trap for monsters so we don’t have any problems. Where should I put it?”

“Uh, maybe just under the welcome mat at the door,” she said, gesturing towards the front of the apartment.

I nodded, pulled the mat away, and laid out the tile before putting the mat back down over it.

“Did you take a look at your school schedule yet?” she asked as I came back to the living room.

“What schedule?” I asked.

She went over to the side table where she had set up a couple designated areas like a bowl for keys and then a tray for mail. She pulled an envelope from the tray and handed it to me. It took me a second to read my name on the front.

I opened it up and pulled out my school schedule as well as a list of supplies. No summer reading list though which was good news for me. I focused on the schedule. It said the first day was an orientation day before all my other regular classes started. My schedule looked a little weird though.

“Why’s there so much homeroom?” I asked my mom. “It does say homeroom, right?”

“Let me see,” she said, leaning towards me as I tilted the paper towards her. “Yeah, it’s homeroom. The school’s taken inspiration of Montessori teaching so I think you stay in your own classroom a lot more.”

I looked over the page again skeptically. “What’s Montessori?”

“More academic freedom, no grades, that kind of thing. I’m hoping it’ll help you out since they said they specialize with learning disabilities as well.”

Well, the no grades thing sounded amazing.

“Is that why it says we have recess?” I asked. We hadn’t had that in sixth grade at Yancy.

“Yeah, getting outdoors is important in Montessori.”

“It says I’m in art class, right?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she confirmed.

I glanced up at her then back to the page. “Do they have a music class?”

“You want to do that instead?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, if I could.”

“Okay, I’ll call them tomorrow. Hopefully the office is open, but we’ll see,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Of course, sweetheart,” she said, ducking down to kiss my temple.

She got my schedule changed the next day while she was at work. I stayed home and basically just had a movie marathon. I was too tired to do much more than lie on the couch and cook for myself. I tried to play guitar, but kept messing up my fingering until I got too frustrated to continue. I couldn’t listen to my new CDs either since I’d fall asleep until they played out. At least if it was a movie, I’d have already seen it and wouldn’t really miss anything.

My mom took me out to dinner for my birthday. It wasn’t that fancy since I’d asked for pizza as camp didn’t have junk food, but it was nicer than some diner with dollar slices. She’d also gotten me a little blue cake to celebrate with at home. We put on a movie after, and I fell asleep on the couch again.

Thankfully, my energy returned by the time school started. I had an entirely new outfit on for the first day since I'd grown out of all my old clothes. I had a new backpack too since I refused to use the one given to me by Ares that I'd been forced to use at camp. I felt prepared until I walked into the classroom, and not only were the desks arranged in a circle rather than rows, there were definitely kids older than me in there.

I went up to the teacher with my schedule in hand. “Uh, hi, is this the right room?”

She checked the page. “Yes, you’re in the right spot. It’s nice to meet you, Percy. I’m your new teacher, Mrs. Meredith.”

“But, uh,” I looked around again. There was no way the guy talking to two other students standing half a head taller than them and with the beginnings of a mustache was thirteen. “Isn’t this seventh grade?”

"We do mixed age groups here," she said with a smile. "This class is for twelve to fifteen year olds."

"Okay," I said warily. It had worked for camp, but it seemed weird for school.

“Don’t worry. You’re not our only new student. I’ll explain everything during orientation. Feel free to take whichever seat you like,” she said, guiding me towards the circle of desks.

Glancing around, I could already see existing friend groups. I moved towards an open area and sat down, tucking my backpack by my seat. No one really looked my way. I tried to sit still, but I started jiggling my leg and tapping my nails against the desk.

A ripple of noise went through the class. I looked around. A new kid had entered the room. He was a head taller than even the fifteen year olds. He wasn’t skinny either, like he’d only just had his growth spurt. All of him was big, but he didn’t look like he was overweight either, just large. He looked to be in pretty rough shape, too. His clothes had to be a couple years old, bought second hand at best.

The other students quickly started taking their seats while the new kid hovered in the doorway. They all sat next to each other, cramming in close together and not leaving any desks open. That left all the open seats by me.

So of course, the new kid sat down right next to me, making the whole desk creak. I tried really hard not to wrinkle my nose, but the guy reeked. Puberty had definitely hit him hard, and someone had clearly fallen down on the job in introducing him to deodorant.

"Hi," he said, and his voice was deep enough to be a grown man's, no hint of an embarrassing crack or squeak.

So why did it sound so young, like some shy kid around Will's age or even younger?

"Hey," I said, keeping my tone neutral.

"Ready to get started everyone?" Mrs. Meredith called, and most of the class responded cheerfully. “I want us to introduce ourselves to each other since we have a few new students this year. After that, we’ll get started with the rest of orientation.”

I grimaced. Everyone went around the room saying what their names were, what they’d done last summer, and one fun fact about them. I could never come up with a good fun fact, and the whole demigod situation wasn’t helping.

When my turn came around, I said, “My name’s Percy, I went to camp for the summer, and I can play guitar.”

I turned slightly to see what the kid next to me would say.

“I’m Tyson,” he said, his hands fidgeting on the desk.

He didn’t say anything more. The room stayed silent for several long moments before the next kid started talking. I tried my best to pay attention now that my turn had passed.

Once we’d all finished talking, Mrs. Meredith had us all turn our desks towards the front of the class and move into rows. I ended up at the back with Tyson.

“It was nice to meet you all, and now it’s time to cover how this school year will go. We have a couple students new to our implementation of the Montessori system so we’re going to start from the beginning,” she said, smiling at us. “A lot of the day, you’ll be in class here with me. You’ll have the freedom to choose which subjects you want to work on, and we have different work stations around the room for each one. You can work at your own pace and with others as you choose. I’ll be around to help you if you ever get stuck. Tomorrow, we’ll add in your other lessons outside this classroom like the language you’re taking, your chosen art course, and PE, but for today, we’ll start with the grand lessons covering the major topics in each subject that will guide your learning for the year."

I made a face. Group work had usually ended with me snapping at someone. Darryl hadn’t made us work in groups during our Greek lessons.

"Don't worry," Mrs. Meredith said. "It's a lot to adjust to, but I'll be here to help along with the older students. Any questions so far?”

I didn’t say anything, and neither did Tyson. If there were any other new kids, they weren’t speaking up either.

“Alright, I’ll begin the lessons then,” she said with a smile.

It actually wasn't that bad. It was a lot like how Darryl ran her classroom with breaks and stuff, but with more topics than ancient Greek. I didn't really talk to anyone at break, but that might have been my fault for sitting in the back. I don't think the big guy next to me helped either.

"Hi," Tyson said during one of the breaks. He smiled at me.

I tried not to wince. His parents really should take him to an orthodontist.

"Yeah, hi," I said.

"It was nice to meet you," he said like it was the best thing that had happened to him.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, too," I said, hoping Tyson wasn't about to get weird on me.

"I like fixing things," he told me after a couple seconds of silence passed.

"Yeah, what kind of things?" I asked.

"All kinds of things," he said. "But I like gears best."

I glanced over at him. He almost sounded like a Hephaestus kid, but there was no way. He didn’t look like any of them. "Ever heard about HAM radio?" I asked.

Eugene talked about it a lot, but he had to be careful with it since a demigod using it would attract monsters just like cellphones would. The camp might have protected borders, but attracting monsters was still frowned upon.

"Yes," Tyson said excitedly. Then he slumped down. "But I don't have one."

"Maybe ask your parents for one?" I tried. Eugene had made it sound like the basic ones weren't that expensive.

"Don't got parents," Tyson said sadly.

I cringed. I shouldn't have complained about the B.O. He maybe really hadn’t had anyone to teach him if he was a foster kid here on scholarship. "Sorry," I said.

"It's okay," he said, but he sounded on the verge of crying.

Mrs. Meredith rescued me by calling our attention back to the lesson.

The best part of the day aside from getting to eat lunch was recess out in the school’s courtyard. It was clearly designed for littler kids with different play-sets set up taking up most of the room, but there were also a few different benches as well as a paved area to play four square. Friend groups quickly filled out a lot of the areas, but when I approached the four square court, Tyson followed. The other kids tightened ranks, shooting Tyson sharp looks before turning away from him.

I quickly changed directions. There was a small pond in the courtyard with a free bench beside it. I headed over there, taking a seat at the far end. Tyson sat down beside me. He made the wood creak horribly, and I checked to make sure nothing cracked.

“Do you like water?” Tyson asked.

“Sure,” I said.

“I like water, too,” he said, sounding pleased.

"You ever been to the ocean?" I asked him.

Tyson shook his head sadly. "No, but I want to."

"Someday, I'm sure you'll go," I said, offering a him a smile. "We're not that far away from it. I think you'll like it."

Tyson nodded. "Me too."

I spent the rest of our recess asking Tyson what he knew about the ocean. It sounded he at least knew something about it. I told him about Long Island Sound and Santa Monica, but without all the divine parts. He looked so excited to hear about the ocean I couldn't not tell him.

On our way back to the classroom, the other kids still avoided us. They'd give us searching looks, slight frowns on their faces then quickly turned away again. I sighed. It wasn't anything I hadn't seen before from befriending Grover or getting attacked by a hellhound.

"What's wrong?" Tyson asked.

"Nothing, Big Guy," I assured him. "First day of school just makes you a little tired, right?"

Tyson nodded. "Right."

Mrs. Meredith continued her lessons for the afternoon with other breaks. It was probably the best first day of school I'd ever had academics wise, but the other kids still gave me and Tyson a wide berth. It had probably been too much to hope a fancy new school with a different learning style would fix everything.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I told Tyson before I left for home at the end of the school day.

"Bye, Percy," Tyson said, giving me a wave.

He honestly seemed a little upset watching me go. Poor guy had probably never had many friends before if he got moved around foster homes and with how large he was.

Well, he was stuck with me for now.

Chapter Text

"How was school?" Mom asked me when she got home around dinner time.

"It's different, more like camp than school, but it'll be nice not having grades," I said. "Not everyone is totally rich-y rich either which is nice."

"Really?" she asked. "I got the impression scholarships were pretty limited."

I shrugged. "Pretty sure there's a foster kid in my class. Like, I didn't ask him about it 'cause that seemed rude, but he kinda said he didn't have parents so."

"Oh, that's awful," Mom said, concerned. "Are you going to at least keep an eye on him?”

"Yeah, he's into the ocean so we've got something in common at least," I said. I didn’t need to tell her that every other kid in the class was avoiding him.

"That's good," she said, sounding relieved.

"Is it alright if I check my email?" I asked.

"Yeah, go ahead," she said. "I'm gonna change and start on dinner."

"Okay," I said, heading over to the computer.

The email chain between Chiron and the counselors was still going strong over how to deal with Luke and keep the camp protected since demigods were automatically allowed past the barriers. Argus had hundreds of eyes, but Luke's father had defeated him before. Luke had even been the one to tell me about it. The satyrs and nymphs could help keep watch, but they wouldn't have much luck against Luke’s sword fighting prowess. Andrew suggested using the swans on him, but I couldn't tell if that was a serious suggestion or not. Darryl shut it down immediately anyways.

I got a long email from Annabeth detailing daily life at camp since I'd left. They'd started lessons before I had, but the curriculum really didn't seem all that much different from mine. Will also sent me an email, but it was much shorter. He mostly complained that he didn't have as much time to play guitar anymore and Apollo wouldn't let him get a playstation because his mom said no. It sounded so ludicrous that a Greek god wouldn’t allow a kid to get a video game console that I nearly asked my father for one just to see what would happen. Will ended his message saying he'd get to see his mom in October and he used about five exclamation points for it. I responded to both of them, telling them about school starting and that I hadn’t been attacked by any monsters yet.

The last email came from Jessa with just question marks in the subject. I opened it to see a non-punctuated and misspelled stream of questions. Apparently, her dad and step mom had wanted to catch up with her and given her no time to check her email until now. She'd just found out about Luke. I had a horrible time trying to read it, but one line stood out.

i knwe smeothing wsa worng wiht him

I hadn't ever talked to Jessa about Luke, Cam either for that matter, or anyone else in cabin eleven. They were all the ones that spent the most time with him since they lived together. Lysander hadn't agreed with how Luke had trained me with sword fighting, but who had been there for cabin eleven's lessons if he got rough with someone who couldn't heal with a little water like me? Who had been there in the cabin protecting them at night? Had Luke tried recruiting them to turn against the gods for Kronos?

I could ask over email, but that didn't seem like a good idea if Jessa was struggling this much with typing. I wrote back, being extra careful about my spelling, giving her the rundown of what had happened with Luke and that Chiron and counselors were working on improving security, but I also told her I had some questions for her when we got back to camp next summer.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes after all the staring at the screen.

"Percy, dinner's ready," my mom called.

I logged out and shut off the computer to join her. We ate dinner, and mom told a couple funny stories about her coworkers. We had something of a new routine afterwards. Mom worked on her novel, all her loose leaf paper spread out on the coffee table as she worked out her time line while I played what I'd been working on when I'd practiced guitar before she got home.

"I can't believe how good you've gotten," she said as she reshuffled her papers. "I never thought you'd be that into playing music."

"It's fun," I said. "Lysander's so much better than me though."

"Lysander didn't start learning this past summer."

"I know,” I said, slumping over my guitar.

She finished getting her pages all lined up. "Okay, I think I have my outline."

"Good," I told her, strumming over the strings before using my hand to mute them again.

"Next step is the first draft," she said.

That was usually where she'd gotten stuck every time she’d tried before this.

"Good luck," I told her.

"Thanks," she said with a smile.

The next morning, I had to bring in everything I needed for my other, non-homeroom classes. That meant gym shoes and soap and deodorant for gym class, and my guitar for music. I nearly forgot my lunch in the process of checking for everything else. I practically had to run out the door after that. I put my guitar with the couple of other instrument cases I saw in the back corner of the classroom before dashing to a free seat.

The start of school was a lot less like camp, and not much like Yancy either. Instead of Mrs. Meredith talking to us, we picked what subject to work on from different stations around the classroom. We had different tasks and assignments for each one to complete. I started with math since I had less difficulty with it so long as there weren't too many word problems.

Tyson took the seat next to me, and everyone else left. I tried not to shoot them any dirty looks for that, but focused on my work. I finished the third question when I glanced over to Tyson’s sheet. He really must have been left behind as a foster kid as he had barely even tried the first question.

“You want a hint?” I asked him quietly.

He nodded, turning his page towards me.

“Okay,” I said, scooting a little closer.

I ended up spending most of the morning helping him on the worksheet. Mrs. Meredith had caught on pretty quickly that Tyson was struggling. She guided him as much as she could, but other kids kept asking for her to come check their work. I swore they were doing it to keep her away from Tyson.

Tyson and I stuck together through lunch and recess, and I honestly felt bad for how much Tyson thanked me for helping him with the math. I was a D average math student so for me to be able to help him meant his prior schooling had to be really, really bad.

We had to split up after recess, though. I had music class, but Tyson was in art.

"Bye, Percy," Tyson said, sounding like he might cry.

"Don't worry, Big Guy," I said, socking him very, very lightly in the arm to encourage him. "You'll have fun in art, and I'll see you after, okay? You’re taking Spanish, too, right?"

Meriwether didn’t offer Latin let alone Greek. It was too bad because if they had and they gave out grades, I might have been able to get my first ever A.

Tyson did seem to buck up as he nodded to me. "I will have fun, and see you in Spanish."

"Yeah, exactly," I said, offering him a smile.

He smiled back and followed the other kids to art class. I headed to music class which was mostly made up of new kids from the other classes in my age group I hadn’t met before.

"This is not band class," Mr. Nick, the music teacher, said after we did introductions like we had in Mrs. Meredith’s class. "I'm not going to make you all play the same songs in the same group. That's why we have practice rooms. We're here to practice whatever you would like to know musically. If you would like to make a band, we can talk about it, okay?"

He got nods and general agreement from everyone.

"Okay, who here already plays an instrument?" he asked, raising his hand.

Most of the class copied him.

"Okay, if you guys could stand over there," he said gesturing to one wall, "and patiently wait for me, that would be great."

I followed my classmates over to the wall. It had shelves of instruments just like the back of the Apollo cabin. The other kids talked among themselves, but I checked out the instruments. Each shelf was labeled, and I eventually found the guitars. I grinned when I read the label for electric guitars and saw the amps stored underneath them.

"Alright," Mr. Nick said as he joined us. "We're gonna make groups of the same instruments, okay? You'll join the kids who want to learn to play the ones you already know."

He called out different instruments, pointing out which area kids were supposed to go to. Turned out most kids played a band or orchestra instrument. A lot of kids played flute or violin. One guy was on his own for double bass along with one girl who played oboe.

That left me with one girl who looked a little older than me who knew guitar.

"Acoustic or electric?" Mr. Nick asked us.

"Acoustic, but I wanna learn electric," the girl said.

"Same," I said.

The double bassist raised his hand from a few feet away. "Can I learn electric bass?"

"Sure, if you want to start now, come over here with the guitarists," he said, gesturing towards us.

"Hey," the bassist said as he joined us.

Mr. Nick went around the room instrument by instrument, starting from the far side from us.

"Hey, I'm Joshua," the bassist said.

"Percy," I said, looking away from Mr. Nick.

"Claire," the other guitarist said.

"How long've you been playing?" Joshua asked.

"Two years," Claire said with a proud smile.

"I just started this summer," I said.

“Oh, cool, I've been playing since I was like five or six," Joshua said. "It was a big deal to my parents that I learn an instrument."

"I get that," I said. "My cousin's whole family plays something or at least sings. That's actually how I ended up learning guitar."

"Did your cousin teach you?" Claire asked.

I shook my head. "Nah, he's a little busy for that. His kid taught me, but he did give me my guitar.”

Both Joshua and Claire gave me strange looks.

"Your cousin's old enough to have a kid?" Joshua asked.

Right. Normal people didn't have immortal cousins old enough to have adult children. "Yeah, I'm on the young side in my family by like a lot."

It was kind of true on my mom's side since she didn't have younger siblings, but I wasn’t about to explain that my dad was older than Zeus.

"Oh," Claire said politely.

Time to never say anything about my family again ever.

"Anyways, how did you guys end up learning?" I asked.

"Mom wanted me to learn violin, but I wanted to play something cooler. Double bass was the compromise," Joshua said. "I've been taking lessons ever since."

"I started with piano," Claire said. "And it's fine, like I haven't quit, but there's just other things you can do with guitar that you can't on piano."

"Yeah, makes sense," I said.

Mr. Nick joined us to ask if we were going to borrow instruments and if we weren’t, if we would be leaving them locked up in the band room. We all were borrowing since Claire had an acoustic guitar like me, and Joshua just had his double base. Then Mr. Nick passed us out forms to keep track of what we were borrowing and got to pick out guitars and matching amps. The lesson kinda ended there as we ran out of time, but hey, we had a whole year to learn.

I rejoined Tyson in Spanish. "Did you have fun in art class?" I asked him as he sat down next to me.

Tyson nodded. "I drew a pony."

"That’s cool,” I told him.

Mrs. Linda, our new Spanish teacher, called us to attention. The class felt like a weird mix of camp and normal school. We had to stay in our seats and have a regular lesson, but everyone was different ages and in different places of learning like at camp. The whole no one already kinda knew the language from their divine parent thing was a bit of a problem though. I just kept my head down and worked on our assignment with Tyson.

I caught myself putting my hand over my nose and mouth. I blinked, glancing over to Tyson to see if he'd noticed. He didn't smell the same as Gabe, but it was still bothering me enough I was trying to use my hand to cover it up.

I sighed. This wasn't going to work long term if I was going to keep helping Tyson. I couldn't just tell him to take a shower or wear more deodorant. Who would want to hear that? Especially from some guy they just met. There had to be some way to handle this that wouldn't embarrass Tyson or get him bullied rather than just ignored.

Except that we had PE next. Hopefully the school had showers, and then Tyson could get cleaned up without it being weird. At least, it was a great idea until Tyson refused to get undressed in the locker room and put on the gym uniforms we were given.

"What's wrong, Big Guy?" I asked.

We'd been allowed to pick our own lockers so obviously no one else was anywhere near us, but Tyson still glanced around nervously.

"Not good," Tyson said, squeezing his hands until he had a death grip on the uniform.

I checked around, and no one was looking our way. I peaked around the corner. The showers had actual stalls that were maybe a little nicer than camp's. "Shower stalls are free," I told him.

Tyson looked over to them then glanced back at me, still clutching his clothes.

"I can stand guard," I promised.

Tyson's shoulders slowly lowered. "Okay."

"I got your back, don't worry," I assured him.

My sword couldn't do anything against a mortal, but surely the wrestling had to count for something. Yeah, I'd lost to demigods, but those were demigods with more experience than me, not untrained mortals.

Tyson ducked into the stall, and I stood out front. He came out holding his old clothes and wearing the new uniform. Once he'd put the clothes back in his locker, he smelled like fifty percent better.

Coach Eddie taught gym. She was tall and buff enough to look like an athlete even though she had to be at least fifty with her gray hair and wrinkles. "Alright, today's just for assessment so we won't be too intense. I want you remember to make sure you have at least body wash and deodorant going forward. Learning to take care of yourself includes hygiene."

She looked us over one by one. "I want you to tell me if anything hurts. We can adjust exercises or have you sit out if necessary. Do not take advantage of this. Not taking care of your physical health and not learning how to safely and properly exercise only harms yourself in the long run. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Coach," we told her.

She did assessments on us like she said she would, but it was weird because she actually explained everything properly included correct form and technique rather than just barking what to do at us. It was very necessary since she started class with a lot of mobility rather than strength exercise that I’d never seen in my life. Fun fact, my range of motion kind of sucked even compared to the other guys. Tyson did better than me, and he looked like he shouldn’t be able to touch the bottom half of his shins with his knees straight let alone his toes.

Coach Eddie continued to do the same when we switched over to strengthening exercises. A lot of the girls complained about never being able to do a push up, but it died down once Coach taught them a proper knee push up. I’d also apparently been doing squats wrong my whole life so we all learned something.

After PE, I took my time getting ready to shower, letting all the other guys go first. Tyson waited with me rather than going by the showers.

“I prefer to shower alone,” I told Tyson even though I’d gotten over that having to shower with all the guys in cabin eleven. “I hope you don’t mind waiting.”

“No problem,” Tyson said.

“Good, we’ll just be quick then get to class on time,” I said.

Tyson nodded in agreement.

We made for the showers as the other guys headed out back to the gym. I let Tyson take the farther stall so he’d know I’d still be standing guard. I showered as quickly as I could, drying off everything except for my hair with my powers. I dressed and stood outside the stall waiting for Tyson. I could see the sleeve of his shirt hanging down beneath the door. It was so ratty. How could parents, even foster ones, let their kid go out dressed like that?

Tyson came out, wearing his old, smelly clothes, erasing any progress the shower had made.

I sighed. How could I do anything about his clothes?

We had one last session with Mrs. Meredith before the end of the day.

“You wanna do science since we did math before?” I asked Tyson.

“Okay,” he agreed easily.

I led the way over to the science section of the room. The other kids huddled up together when Tyson sat down beside me before moving on to other subjects in another part of the classroom. I gathered our textbooks and worksheets and focused on that instead. There was one upside to having Tyson around. If I was explaining things to him, I really had to know it myself. If I'd had him and Darryl's reading tips years ago, I could have probably done better than D average, like maybe a C- or even a C.

After the final bell rung, I said goodbye to Tyson before going to pick up my guitar since I didn’t need it at school anymore.

“Percy,” Mrs. Meredith said. “Could I speak to you for a moment?”

I tensed, but turned to face her. She was smiling at me which was weird for a teacher. 

“I wanted to tell you what an excellent job you’re doing with Tyson,” she said.

I blinked up at her dumbly.

“I know he’s behind the rest of class, and I’ve asked for a teaching assistant, but it’s good of you to help him out so much,” she continued.

“It’s fine, not a big deal or anything,” I said. “I’m still learning stuff, too.”

“That’s good, but we should have the assistant in by next week so it won’t all be on you, okay?” she asked. “I don’t want anything to take away from your own education.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said with a nod. Tyson probably really could use the help.

“Good,” she said, patting my shoulder. “Have a nice evening, Percy.”

“Bye,” I told her and quickly escaped.

Chapter Text

“You remember I told you about the foster kid in my class?" I asked Mom when she got home.

"Yeah," she said, sobering. "Did something happen?"

"I think things have been pretty bad for him," I admitted. "He’s worse than me at the schoolwork. He didn't want to change for gym class and asked me to stand guard. He doesn't smell great and his clothes are ratty so he might just wear them as long as possible. I think it would be easier for the rest of the class to be around him if he showered more, but I don't know how to, like, help without embarrassing him."

"Oh," Mom said, her expression settling into a worried frown. "Does the teacher know?"

"I don't know about the clothes thing, but a teaching assistant is gonna come in to work with him."

"Maybe try to mention it to her or the gym teacher," Mom suggested. "Maybe they can accommodate him better if they have a private shower or something. Just don't do it in front of him. It can stay private."

"Okay," I said.

"I'm gonna put a note in my calendar," Mom said. "Let's give it a month, and if things don't seem better on the home side, we call CPS to check on the foster parents. It takes time to be able to help kids like that, but I don't want him to be stuck someplace bad for him."

"Yeah, okay," I said. "But helping on the school side is better than nothing, right?"

"Of course," Mom said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm proud of you for helping him out. Just ask me if you need anything else."

"More deodorant," I said. "Not for me, for Tyson."

"We have extras, Percy," she said. "You can take what you need."

"I know, I just wanted to ask first."

"It's fine," she assured me. “Let me get changed so I can start making dinner?”

I nodded, stepping out of her way.

We had dinner, and I told Mom about the rest of my school day. We switched over to living room after, her writing, and me playing guitar.

I headed into school the next day, determined to be normal around Tyson. "Social studies?" I asked him.

"Sure," he agreed with a smile.

I guided him over to that area of the classroom, and once again, everyone fled. I rolled my eyes and grabbed us textbooks. Social studies took more reading, and we were unfortunately covering early American history rather than Greek history I might actually have learned something about from Darryl. At least her tips for reading were helping. So was the lack of deadlines and grading. It made it easier to sort out the words.

Then I accidentally made myself the odd one out in music class. Everyone else had turned their forms in for the borrowed instruments, and I hadn’t brought my acoustic guitar back in either.

“I’m so sorry. I can get the form in tomorrow, I swear—,”

“It’s okay,” Mr. Nick said, interrupting me gently. “The form is for you to take the instrument home. You’re allowed to play it in class still. We’re all just going to start with how to set up the guitar and amps.”

I nodded. “Oh, yeah, I can do that.”

Mr. Nick got me and Claire set up on guitars and Joshua on bass with the amps set so we wouldn’t blow any ears out then left us to test things out as he went to help other students for the rest of the period.

Thankfully, there was no trouble in Spanish, and Tyson told me about the fish he drew in art class. I stood guard as Tyson changed before gym class and for the showers after without any issue.

Once classes officially ended and I said goodbye to Tyson, I headed back to the gym. I found Coach Eddie opening up her office door. “Hey, Coach, could I talk to you?”

“Percy, right?” she asked, and I nodded.

She turned towards me. “What’s up, kid?”

“You know Tyson, the big guy in my class?” I asked.

“Yeah, what about him?”

“Well, he doesn’t like changing in the locker room. I had to stand guard for him, and we had to wait for everyone else to finish so that he’d shower. Is there a private bathroom or something he can use?” I asked.

Coach sighed. “I unfortunately can’t just give it out unilaterally. The principal has to give approval, and it usually takes a doctor’s note or something like that.”

“Oh, um, could you ask Tyson about that like privately?” I asked. “I don’t want to make him feel bad.”

“The principal will. It all goes through him,” she said. “Tyson’ll probably get pulled out of lunch time, so don’t freak out if that happens tomorrow.”

“Okay, thanks,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I’m here to help.”

On the way home, I missed the light to cross the road. There was a small skatepark off a side street that would have been pretty difficult to see from the side I normally walked down, especially if no one had been skating. As I walked past, there were a couple guys making use of the flat rail near the fence. I tried not to be obvious as I watched them, and neither of them looked over towards me.

My mom hadn’t told me how much money was left from selling the statue, but maybe with her new job we could afford a skateboard. I’d also have to learn the basics on my own first before I showed up and totally fell flat on my face, but I could definitely do it.

"Could I get a skateboard?" I asked my mom when she got home.

"You want a skateboard? Since when?" she asked as she pulled off her shoes.

I shrugged.

"Why do you want a skateboard?" she asked.

"It's cool," I said which was reason enough, but I continued. "I could use it to get to school faster. There's also a skatepark near it so I could practice there without any cars."

My mom sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

Normally, things didn't go like this. Gabe would have shut the conversation down long before this. He complained any time my mom spent money on me. I'd have gone to school dressed like the Minotaur and had maybe one meal a day when I was home from boarding school if he'd completely had his way.

"Please?" I tried.

"Alright, but you have to wear all the protective equipment," she said. “Helmet and everything.”

"What?" I asked. "But that's so lame. Besides, I have healing powers. Just dump water on me, and I'm good as new."

"For physical injuries. We know it doesn’t work as well on venom, and we don't know what will happen for brain injuries. I'd rather you didn’t test it," she explained.

“But I don’t need to test it. I can just ask Dad since I got the powers from him anyways."

My mom frowned at me. "Your father answers your prayers?"

I shrugged awkwardly. "I mean he hasn't literally talked to me after I've prayed, only Phoebus has done that, but he caught me from the Arch."

She shook her head. "I can't believe you've just met your father, and you're already trying to use him to go over me."

"What? No, I'm not," I said. "You asked about my powers so who else is supposed to answer that?"

"Alright, Percy, fine, if you want to try, go ahead," she said, pressing her fingers against her temple.

I looked through the kitchen for something that would be easy to burn indoors and ended up with Goldfish. Mom supervised as I lit one of the candles on the stove with the hood fan on. I carefully dropped the fish onto the flame. It landed in the wax, but close enough to the wick that it started to char.

I prayed out loud. "Father, do my healing powers from water work on head injuries?"

I waited. Mom shifted to lean her hip against the counter.

“I could try Phoebus,” I said, but it kind of came out sounding like a question.

“Why would you ask Phoebus?” Mom asked, not seeming any more excited about this than she had praying to my father.

"He’s in charge of healing so he might know," I said as I grabbed another Goldfish.

She sighed. “Okay, go ahead and try it.”

I dropped the cracker carefully on the candle, and it landed next to the first. "Dear Apollo, Dad didn’t answer, so do you know if my healing powers from water would work on head injuries?"

Wear a helmet Apollo spoke in my mind. I'll curse one to your head if you don't.

"Seriously?" I asked.

Yes, dear Perseus. Also, you shouldn't eat goldfish. They're very processed.

"What did he say?" Mom asked.

"He said he'd curse a helmet onto my head if I didn't wear one, and I shouldn't eat goldfish," I grumbled.

Mom smiled, and it seemed almost smug. "I'll let you keep the goldfish, but you're definitely wearing a helmet if you want to skateboard."

"But Mom!"

She blinked, startled, and leaned back, away from me.

My stomach turned.

"I'm sorry!" I rushed to get out. “Sorry!”

My mom took care of me. She was just trying to keep me safe. She was my mom. I couldn't get mad at her. I'd have nothing without her, and I’d lost her, failed her, once already. I couldn't do it again.

"Percy?" she asked, frowning. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said, backing away to put the pack of Goldfish on the counter. "I've got homework."

"Wait, Percy," Mom called after me as I rushed from the kitchen.

I shut my bedroom door behind me. I stood there with my hand clenched around the doorknob for a few seconds then I let go. I knelt down beside my backpack at the foot of my bed where I’d chucked it earlier, but I didn't actually have any homework. We'd only had two days of school, and Mrs. Meredith hadn't assigned us anything. All I had was the form to borrow the electric guitar.

I glanced over to my acoustic, safely nestled in its case. I couldn't play it. I'd told my mom I had homework, and she'd hear it. She'd figure out that I'd lied to her.

There was a knock on the door, and I jumped.

"Percy?" Mom called though the door. "I'm not coming in, I just wanted to let you know I'm starting dinner. I'll come get you when it's ready."

"Okay," I said.

I heard her footsteps as she left. I sighed.

I glanced over to my guitar again. I couldn't play, but I still had the sheet music. I read over the songs I hadn't gotten to yet, practicing shaping my left hand for the chords in the air even though it wasn't the same feeling at all.

"Percy?" Mom called as she knocked on my door again. "Dinner's ready, honey."

"Okay," I called, but my voice came out weak.

"Get your homework done?" she asked as I followed her to the dining table. She'd started making nicer and nicer meals now that Gabe wasn't around demanding meatloaf or seven layer dip.

"Yeah," I mumbled, unable to look at her.

"Good," she said as she started serving me. "How was school? Still good?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it was fine."

"Nothing else? Just fine?" she asked. "Even music class?”

"It was fine," I said, shoving the food around with my fork.

She sighed.

I ducked my head further down. Dinner was quiet after that. I shoved what food I could in my mouth, but it didn't taste as good as normal.

"Percy, are you sure you're okay?" she asked. "I didn't mean to upset you. We can go check out a skateboard for you this weekend, okay?"

"I'm fine," I said. "I'll wear a helmet and everything."

"Okay, thank you. I just want you to be safe, honey."

"I know."

As she finished up her plate, I shoveled as much food into my mouth as I could, mechanically chewing and swallowing. I didn't finish, but I got through most of it.

"It's okay if you don't want to hang out with me," Mom said as she took our plates into the kitchen to clear off and rinse. "You're allowed to practice on your own in your room."

"I like hanging out with you," I said, quietly. We'd never gotten to do it much with Gabe around any time I was home. All we had were the short weekends at Montauk.

"I like hanging out with you, too, but it's okay to want some alone time, alright?"

I frowned, looking more at the sink by her hands than at her. Maybe she just didn't want to be with me, but was just trying to be nice. It was a lot of time to be around me after all.

"Okay," I agreed.

I retreated to my room. I played guitar until my fingers hurt too much to keep going then started playing the CDs the Apollo kids had given me. Mom knocked on my door to tell me it was time for bed. I turned off the CD player, went through my night time routine, and turned off the light, but I didn't sleep.

I waited as long as I could stand it then sneaked out of my room to boot up the computer. I pulled up my email. There was only one message from the main thread with the counselors. I skipped it to draft a new message to Lysander.

i yellde at my mom

i shlodu go bcak to camp

I hit send before I could stop myself or check my spelling. I groaned, dropping my head onto the desk, barely missing smacking my head on the space bar. Now Lysander was going to figure out I was dumb, and I really couldn't make a decision for myself.

I turned off the computer and crawled back into bed, but not before putting on Lysander's sweatshirt. It shouldn’t matter if Lysander thought I was dumb. He was still nice enough to give me his sweatshirt and teach me guitar. That had to count for something.

I slept horribly. I didn't even have any demigod nightmares of Kronos to blame it on. I couldn't get a knot out of my hair either before I had to leave it to make it to school on time. Jogging to the subway made the skateboard seem like a better idea even if I would have to wear a lame helmet.

I didn't run in the school hallways, but I did speedwalk to class. I collapsed into the seat next to Tyson, bracing to get yelled at. Mrs. Meredith only smiled. "Right on time, Percy."

I slumped down in my seat, but she moved onto the next student instead of offering criticism.

Tyson turned towards me expectantly. I guess there was one upside to having Tyson around. No one was likely to bother me today.

“Math?” I asked.

“Okay,” he agreed easily.

I led the way over, and we both worked quietly on our assignments. Mrs. Meredith checked on us twice that morning. I realized I had forgotten my form again when I got to music class. I tripped over my own shoe in gym and landed chin first on the floor. Tyson nearly started crying even though I was the one that had gotten hurt. Coach took a look at it, but let me keep going. It was fine after the shower, but I didn’t bother to really try for the rest of the afternoon.

I found a reply from Lysander when I checked my email after my mom got home. My stomach sank as I remembered what I’d sent him late the night before. I took a deep breath before opening it.

Hi Percy,

I can’t help too much without further context, but it’s not the end of the world if you yelled at your mom. We’re not supposed to yell at anybody, I know, but nobody’s perfect. I’ve yelled at my mom, too. She doesn’t hate me for it. I’m sure if you apologized and explained to your mom how you were feeling, she’d forgive you. Remember, she loves you very much and asked you to live with her.

It’s okay if you want to go back to camp, but you don’t need to go back just because you yelled at your mom one time. My recommendation without any more information is that after you talk to your mom you give it one more week. You took a few weeks to make this decision. You don’t need to rush this either.

I hope you’re feeling better and that things are going well at your new school :)

-Lysander

My eyes burned, and I blinked trying to clear them. I got up from the computer and found my mom cooking dinner in the kitchen. I hugged her from behind, burying my face in her shoulder.

“Percy?” she asked. “What’s wrong, baby?”

“I’m sorry,” I told her.

“For what?” she asked, and I could hear her turning off the burner.

“Yelling at you,” I mumbled.

I felt her shoulders relax.

“Is that what you were upset about yesterday?” she asked. “Percy, you’re a teenage boy. I’d be more surprised if you never yelled at me since I’m your mom, here to ruin all your fun to make sure you stay safe instead of looking cool and impressing girls or whatever.”

“I’m not impressing girls,” I said, picking my head up from her shoulder. 

"My point is," Mom said. She started turning around so I let her go. "I talk to other moms. A lot of their sons don't talk to them at all let alone hang out with them as much as you do with me so I'm okay."

"Really?" I asked. "I don't need to go back to camp?"

"No," Mom said loudly, holding up her hands, then she cleared her throat. "I mean, you don't need to go to camp because we had one argument if that's what you're worried about. I know living together like this is an adjustment, but I thought you were starting to like school. I was hoping you could make friends here, too, school friends, skateboard friends, or band friends, whatever."

I sighed. That was never going to happen with Tyson driving everyone else away.

“What is it, sweetheart?” she asked, settling her hands on my arms.

“Nothing,” I said.

She didn’t look like she believed me, but she said, “Okay.”

She turned back towards the stove to cook, and I moved out of her way.

Chapter Text

Dinner that night was more like it had been before, talking about our days though maybe a little quieter. Then at the end, Mom said, "Percy."

I tensed.

"I was thinking about what you said about camp," she said slowly like she needed to sound out the words. "I know you have friends there still like Annabeth and Will so would you want me to call Chiron to see if you could visit sometime like for the weekend or something?”

"You would do that?" I asked.

"I don't know if it's allowed, and it couldn't be every weekend, and you'd need to keep on top of you schoolwork, but I can ask," she told me.

"Yeah, yeah, that'd be great," I said, smiling.

I wouldn't be able to see everyone, but I could visit Annabeth and Will at least.

That evening, I played Mom the new Beatles song I'd learned while she kept working on her rough draft. She'd switched over to using notebooks and had used a Sharpie to mark a big 1 on the front of the cover.

"Hey, which Muse do you think does novels?" I asked as Mom was wrapping up for the night. "I know that a few do different poetry because Darryl went over them, but I don't think one does novels."

"Hm," Mom said as she looked up from her papers. "That's a good point. No one has movies either."

"Do you think novels fall under epic poetry?" I asked. "Movies are visual so does that mean they're under Phoebus? Because the Muses just do like spoken and written things. Oh, and dance and there’s the one that does space stuff."

"Maybe Mr. D does movies since they come from plays," Mom said.

"But the actual filming has to be Phoebus, right?" I asked. "Photography and filming is recording light, and he's the god of light."

"That's a good point," she said. "Why so curious now?"

"Well, you're writing a novel. Shouldn't you give offerings to the right Muse?"

Mom chuckled. "Maybe. Do you pray to Phoebus about playing guitar?"

"No, but his kid taught me to play, and his other kids were trying to bully me into singing," I said. "That's enough already, don't you think?"

"I don't think they were bullying you is what I think," Mom said. "They love singing and wanted to share it with you."

My cheeks burned. "I guess."

"Well, if you ever figure out which Muse I'm supposed to make offerings to, I can give it a try," Mom said, stacking all her papers up.

I looked skyward since I wasn't about to triangulate where the Empire State Building was from inside our apartment. "Dear Apollo, if you were going to write a novel, which Muse would you give offerings to?"

"Hon, I don't think you're supposed to bother the gods like that," Mom said.

"Why not?" I asked. "We do offerings every night at camp and talk to them. I'd have kept doing offerings here, but we have a smoke alarm and Phoebus doesn’t like goldfish so."

"Oh," she said, looking at me strangely.

"What?" I asked.

"I didn't realize you were so religious now," she said.

I tilted my head from side to side. "I mean I guess. I don't like listen to sermons or go to temples or anything. It's not like I need faith or something. I'm literally the son of a god. I’ve met multiple of them now. I fought one of them."

"I know, but you studied religious texts all summer, and now you pray and you want to make offerings," she pointed out.

"I didn't really think about them as religious texts," I said. "Maybe yes then? Is that bad?"

"No, not at all,” she said quickly. Then she shook her head. “I guess I just wasn't thinking about all that when I sent you off to camp.”

I shrugged.

"Alright, off to bed with you," she said.

I got ready for bed, going through my nighttime routine and pulling back the covers to climb in.

Dear Perseus

I nearly bashed my foot against the bed frame at the sound of Apollo's voice abruptly appearing in my head.

I personally don't make offerings as making offerings to yourself is far too gauche nor does it do anyone much good, but typically Calliope handles novels though it wouldn’t hurt to leave an offering to all of them depending on the subject matter and genre.

I sighed, shaking out my hands to get rid of the adrenaline. "I don't know what gauche means but thanks, Apollo."

I didn't receive another response.

I caught Mom in the morning before we both had to head out. “Phoebus said Calliope does novels, but it’s okay to just do an offering to all of them.”

“Oh,” she said, blinking a couple times. “He really answered that? Okay.”

Then she frowned at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Are you eating a slice of bread for breakfast?” she asked.

“It’s toast,” I said. “But I don’t have time to toast it.”

“Okay, how about you just get to class, and we’ll deal with that later,” she said, gesturing for me to head out the door first.

That day at lunch, the secretary from the front office who I’d only ever seen from the other side of the glass door before this found me and Tyson at our empty table in the cafeteria near the end of the lunch period.

“Tyson, would you come follow me?” she asked him. “You’re not in trouble. We just need to cover some administrative details.”

Tyson turned towards me.

“It’s fine, Big Guy,” I told him. “You’ll see me after. We’ll meet up by the pond.”

“Okay,” he said, slowly getting up. “See you.”

He followed her out of the cafeteria. I cleaned up after both of us and sat watching the clock with my knee jiggling for the rest of lunch. I leaped up when it ended, and I could head outside. I took our usual spot at the pond. Kids kept shooting me looks while I waited for Tyson.

“How’d it go?” I asked him when he finally joined me on the bench.

“Uh,” he said. “They said I need to give a form to my parents, but I don’t got parents.”

“I know,” I said gently. “Don’t you have foster parents? Or were you taken in by a relative or something?”

He shook his head. “Don’t got any of those, either. I only got you.”

I frowned. How could Tyson be attending school if no adults had registered him or anything?

“Could you take it?” he asked me.

“What?” I asked. “No, I’m sorry. I can’t take it. You need a parent or guardian.”

“You guard me.”

I sighed. “Not that kind of guard. Like, someone who’s legally allowed to take care of you and make decisions. I’m not even an adult.”

“Oh,” he said, slumping down.

“Sorry, Big Guy,” I told him. “There’s not much I can do here.”

“It’s okay,” he said, but it didn’t really sound like he was okay. He was slower than normal getting through classwork than he usually was.

“I’ll see you on Monday, okay?” I asked him before I headed out after the end of the school day.

He nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“We’ll work something out, promise,” I told him, putting a hand on his arm because I couldn’t reach his shoulder.

“Sure,” he said, but he didn’t sound very confident.

I sighed and let it be for now. I stopped by the skate park on the way home, watching guys and even a couple girls there try out tricks to distract myself from this set back to helping out Tyson. Then I headed back to our apartment.

I waited for my mom to come home in the living room. I plucked at the guitar rather than just sitting there jiggling my leg or picking at my fingers. I heard the key in the lock and put my palm over the strings.

"I'm home," Mom called.

"Hey, uh, about Tyson," I said.

Mom dropped her arms, her bag hitting the floor as worry crossed her face. "Oh, no, what happened?"

"Nobody got hurt," I said. "It's not anything the school did. Coach said they do have a private bathroom, but they need like a doctor's note and parent's signature to let Tyson use it, and then Tyson said he didn't have anyone to help him get that. Like he asked me to sign it. That's super bad, right?"

"Yeah, that's definitely bad," she said. "I'm gonna skip waiting a month. Do you know his last name?"

"Uh, no, I didn't ask," I said. "He only writes Tyson on his worksheets."

"Okay, well, ask him on Monday, please?" she asked. "I want to make sure we call about the right Tyson."

"I will," I promised.

"I'm gonna get changed," she said. "Does spaghetti sound good for dinner?"

"Yeah," I assured her.

I told her more about what had happened with Tyson over dinner, but we couldn't plan much more without his name. I played more Beatles for Mom as she wrote.

She sighed, combing her hair back from her face when she finished writing for the night. "Do you still wanna get a skateboard tomorrow?"

“Yeah, if we could.”

"Okay, tomorrow afternoon then," she said.

"Thanks."

"Of course, honey," she said, offering me a tired smile.

After lunch the next day, we headed out to the nearest skateboard shop. My eyes practically bugged out of my head seeing all the boards lined up on the walls with different graffiti designs on them.

"Hi," Mom said to the first guy with a name tag that she spotted.

He wasn't wearing any sort of uniform. He had on a beanie, a baggy graphic tee, and just as baggy jeans. "My son wants to get a skateboard, but he's never ridden before."

"Fresh meat, sweet," the guy said with a grin. "Always fun to bring newcomers on board. Got a price range?"

"Um, I'm not sure," Mom said, gripping the strap of her bag. "I was hoping you'd have something meant for beginners, and I want to make sure he got a helmet and everything else."

"Yeah, yeah, cool," he said then looked me over then turned back to Mom. "I'd say spend your money on the protective equipment and go basic on the board. He's gonna grow and figure out how he likes to ride so he'll probably change stuff up, sound good?"

"That's great, thank you," Mom said, tension leaving her shoulders.

"Alright, man," the guy said, facing me again. "What's your favorite color?"

"Blue," I answered.

"Sick, let's get a blue board then," he said, motioning for us to follow him. "I'm gonna assume you know nothing so I'm gonna explain and you just ask me any questions you got."

He took us back to a row of cheaper boards with plain undersides. He walked us through the different parts of a skateboard and showed us how to adjust the trucks for turning. He had me stand on it and test it out. He explained a few things about how to get started skating before he switched over to having me try on the protective equipment. He also recommended a skate magazine for starting out learning.

"All set?" he asked once I'd been decked out with a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads.

"Yeah, I think we're good," Mom said.

He brought us over to the cash to check out, and I winced when I saw the total. Mom didn't even hesitate and just paid for everything.

"Good luck starting out. This guy'll cover the basics," the guy said, holding up the magazine before sticking it in the bag with the protective equipment. "But you just gotta get out there and meet people and watch them to really learn the more advanced stuff.”

"Thanks," I said.

I took the bag and skateboard from him rather than letting Mom carry any of it.

"Happy now?" she asked once we were outside.

"Yeah, definitely."

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to follow the little grainy photos showing how to skate in the magazine down in the underground garage. I still wasn't totally sold on the helmet, but the knee pads were definitely worth it for every time I crash landed directly on my knees straight onto asphalt. By dinner time when more cars were coming in and out, I could go forward, turn a little in place, but stopping was still pretty problematic. I'd have to do a lot more practice before I could show my face in the skatepark.

"What're gonna do for your offering?" I asked Mom when we started cleaning up dinner.

"I don't know, honey," she said with a sigh. "It's a nice idea, but I really don't want to have to keep setting things on fire. It seems like a waste of goldfish, too."

"Yeah," I said as I brought my plate to the sink to rinse off. "Wait!"

"What is it?" Mom asked, startled.

"Libations!" I said, nearly dropping my plate straight in the sink then carefully setting it onto the counter instead. I rushed over to the fridge. "You're supposed to do it with wine, obviously we're not going to do that, but you can do it with—,"

I pulled out the carton of orange juice and held it up over my head in triumph. "—fruit juice!"

"You want to set orange juice on fire?" My mom asked skeptically, crossing her arms.

"What? No, well, I mean I guess you could if you really wanted to try it," I said, lowering the carton. "But you're just supposed to pour it out. We don't have a phiale, but I guess we could just do it in the sink because it's not like we have any land to do it on."

"You're not going to pour all of it out, are you?" she asked.

"No, you just pour a little bit then you pray to the Muses about your book," I said, holding the carton out.

"Alright," she said warily as she took the carton from me.

She took a breath then poured a splash of orange juice into the sink.

"Wait, don't say dear," I warned her, holding up my hands. "You're not supposed to do that."

"But you use dear," she pointed out.

"Yeah for Dad who's my dad, and for Phoebus who said I could," I said. "So you could do it for Dad because you know him, but you don't know the Muses. If you do it to them, they're gonna think you're rude."

Mom shook her head. "Okay so I just start talking to them instead?"

"Yeah, but politely."

Mom took another breath, poured another little splash of orange juice and said, "Muses, I am working on writing my first novel and would appreciate your assistance. Thank you."

She waited a moment then leaned in towards me. "Was that right? Nothing happened."

"I think it was fine," I said. "You don't normally get answers, unless your Phoebus's or Mr. D's kid. Dad's never spoken back to me, and Phoebus has maybe three times? I think.”

"Okay, well, I tried," she said, handing the carton back to me.

I considered the carton that was only a quarter full. It was after dinner, but oh well. I poured out a splash and prayed Father.

Nothing happened, same as at camp. I shrugged and took a swig of the orange juice myself.

"Percy," Mom said, sounding scandalized.

"What?" I asked.

"Don't drink straight from the carton," she scolded. "How often have you been doing that?"

"I haven't," I said, trying to shrink away. "I only did it because there was a little bit left."

She sighed. "You can finish that one off, but use a cup next time, please."

"Okay," I said quietly.

I wasn't that thirsty anymore, but I took the carton with me to my room anyways. I listened to the White Stripes CD Lee had gotten me rather than playing anything for my mom. I forced myself to finish off the orange juice so Mom wouldn't have to deal with it.

Mom knocked on my door, "Percy?"

I shut off the CD player. "Yeah?"

"Time for bed, sweetheart," she said then after a pause added, "Do you want to talk?"

I got up from the floor and opened the door a crack. "About what?" I asked.

"Whatever you'd like," she asked, frowning. "I didn't mean to upset you about the orange juice. I just don't want to accidentally drink your backwash."

"No, I know that," I said, opening up the door a little farther. "I'm not upset about the orange juice."

"Then why did you hide out in your room?"

"I didn't hide out," I said, but I could feel my cheeks burning. Heroes don't hide from things. "I just wanted to listen to my music."

"Okay," she said, using that tone she always did for calming me down after talking to Gabe, but there is no Gabe anymore. She shouldn't have to use it ever again. "Can I get a hug?"

"Yeah, of course," I said, slipping out from behind the door.

I wrapped my arms around her waist. I was getting closer and closer to her height, but for now it was easy enough for her to put her arms around my shoulders. She shifted one hand to start combing her fingers gently through my hair at the back of my head. I gave in and buried my face in her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, baby," she told me. "I wanted this all to be easy, wanted everything bad to just be all over, but it's not. It's still really, really hard."

"You don't need to be sorry," I mumbled into her shoulder. "It's okay."

I could feel her take a shaky breath in before she cleared her throat. "I, um, know I said, that it's okay to want your own space or do something on your own, and it is, it is. I just, um, I don't, well, if you're upset with me, I'd rather you just tell me what's bothering you."

I pulled back to be able to look at her. "I'm not mad at you. I'd never be mad at you."

She cleared her throat again, looking somewhere closer to my chin than at my eyes. "I don't know about that, but, um, I didn't want to have to tell you this, honey, but sometimes, sometimes Gabe would be upset with me, and I was just supposed to know what was wrong and fix it. I'd really rather you just tell me what the issue is than hiding in your room. It's a lot easier that way."

"There isn't an issue. I just—," I cut myself off, frowning. "I won't drink from the carton anymore."

She continued to frown. Then she sighed. "Okay. Just, try to tell me if something is bothering you?"

"Yeah, I will, promise. I told you about Tyson."

"I know, honey," she said, and her frown finally lifted a little. "It was good that you did. Once you give me his last name, I will call CPS."

"Okay, thanks."

"Of course, sweetheart, always," she promised. "Ready for bed?"

"Yeah," I said, but I got the empty cartoon out of my room and rinsed it and put it in the recycle bin before heading to the bathroom to go through my nighttime routine.

The next morning, I poured a little splash of milk out for my father since we didn't have any more juice. Then I poured myself a glass like Mom wanted and finished it with my breakfast.

Chapter Text

On Monday morning, Tyson sat down beside me like he had the week before. I held my breath as he greeted me. A weekend away made him smell so much worse. We had to fix this somehow.

"How was your weekend?" I asked, trying to breathe only through my mouth.

"Okay, I guess," Tyson said. "School is better."

I tried not to stare at him for saying that. Meriwether might not have grades, but it was still a school. Home had to be really, really bad for him to say school was better.

"Good morning class," Mrs. Meredith greeted us with a smile. "I want to introduce you to Miss Angela. She's going to be our new teaching assistant for the year to help out. Please be kind to her."

The woman next to her looked quite a bit younger than Mrs. Meredith with strawberry blonde hair tied in a braid pulled over her shoulder. She was pretty for a teacher.

"Hi, Miss Angela," the class told her.

Mrs. Meredith gave us some reminders before dismissing us to work.

I headed over to the math section with Tyson. Miss Angela joined us shortly after.

"Hi, guys," she said all smilely and friendly. "Is it okay if I watch how you guys work?"

"Yeah, sure," I said.

Tyson turned his head towards me then back to Miss Angela. "Yeah, sure."

"Great, thank you," she said, sitting down on Tyson's other side. "Can you tell me what you're working on?"

Tyson turned towards me.

"You can show her, Big Guy," I assured him.

He nodded then turned back to her and started explaining the worksheet. Well, he tried to anyways. Miss Angela gently stepped in to correct him and guide him through the worksheet. I followed along as I did my own work, checking that she wouldn’t say anything to Tyson that some of my old teachers used to say to me. She never did though. She was nice to him the whole time, like she could tell like I did that Tyson was young no matter how big he was. We finished way sooner than we had been doing the work before.

"We did it," Tyson said proudly, grinning as he held up his completed sheet to me.

"Yeah, Big Guy, you did it," I told him. “Good job.”

“Were you able to complete yours, Percy?” Miss Angela asked me.

“Uh, yeah,” I said, a little surprised since she was here for Tyson.

“Do you mind if I take a look?” she asked.

I almost said yes, I did mind, but then she started to turn away and back to Tyson so I blurted, “Yeah, it’s okay.”

I quickly shoved my page over to her. She squinted as she read it over. “Good work, Percy,” she said.

I felt my cheeks burn. “Really?”

“Yeah, you did a good job,” she told me with a smile. “I’m just a little worried about your handwriting as it’s a bit difficult for me to read. You have dyslexia, right?”

“Yeah,” I admitted quietly.

“That’s okay,” she assured me. “I think you’ll find working on your handwriting will be worth the effort. It’ll make it easier for you to read your own work back and make studying easier for you. What do you think?”

Well, it wasn’t like I had a time limit like I had in all my other schools. I could take my time writing out all the letters and numbers. Then Miss Angela could read my work easier rather than having to squint at it. “Yeah, okay.”

“Good,” she said with a smile, and I could feel my cheeks get even hotter. “Do you guys want to keep working on math or move to something else?”

“What do you think, Big Guy?” I asked Tyson.

He hummed then pulled out the worksheet for the next section. “I like math.”

Miss Angela chuckled. “Alright, we’ll stick with math.”

I pulled out the next worksheet as well. I continued checking in on Miss Angela and Tyson. Everything continued to go well so I paid more attention to making sure I wrote nicely. It was slower going, but I felt pretty good about my answers. Miss Angela checked our work again and told us we did a nice job again.

“I’m gonna go check on the other kids, okay?” Miss Angela asked us as she stood up. “Are you guys going to stay here?”

“What about doing science?” I asked Tyson.

He nodded. “Let’s do science.”

“Okay, I might meet you guys there later,” Miss Angela said, offering us a smile.

I smiled back at her. 

She headed off towards the English corner as Tyson and I headed over to science.

“She’s nice, don’t you think?” I asked Tyson once we’d gotten set up.

He nodded. “Yes, I like her.”

“Good,” I said. “She’ll make school a lot easier.”

“Yeah, school is fun,” he said, starting on our science assignment with enthusiasm.

“Sure,” I said. It was probably a good thing he liked school. It was better than having my past experiences with schools.

Towards the end of the day, after we survived PE, I turned to Tyson. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he said then slumped. "About what?”

"I was just curious what your last name was,” I said, trying my best to be casual about it.

Tyson twisted his hands together. Then he quietly said, "Nerantzis."

It was Greek. It sounded like it came from the word for bitter orange.

"Cool name," I said.

He smiled. "Thanks."

"Ready to get back to finishing this social studies stuff then?" I asked.

"Yes," Tyson said, nodding before he refocused on his textbook.

Whatever Tyson had gone through to get so far behind in school, at least he seemed determined to get better at it.

Mom called CPS that night. She made the mistake of starting the call while she was cooking, holding the phone against her ear with her shoulder. Whoever was on the line had no idea who Tyson Nerantzis, and Mom kept explaining over and over again who he was, what he looked like based on my description and which school he was attending. She spent so long arguing she almost burnt the food. I took over plating for her as she continued talking.

The food had gone cold when Mom finally hung up with an aggravated sigh.

"I'm sorry, Percy," she said as she sat down with me. "I don't know how they don't know who Tyson is. He's attending school so he can't be some run away. He has to have paperwork somewhere."

I shrugged. "I don’t know, but he's not gonna be able to get a private bathroom without some guardian to sign for him."

Mom looked miserable, the way she had when she'd lost arguments with Gabe trying to buy me new clothes that would fit me. "I know, honey. I don't know what more we can do. You'll keep helping him out?"

I nodded. “Yeah, try to anyways.”

“Alright,” she said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders before letting me go so we could eat.

At the end of the next school day, I went to find Coach again.

“Percy, what’s up?” she asked me. “Did Tyson get permission from the principal?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. What I wanted to ask was, are the showers open before school starts?”

“Yeah, some of the sports teams have morning training, why?” she asked. “Are you planning on joining a team?”

“Maybe basketball,” I said, but I didn’t really have plans to do that now that I had a skateboard. “But I don’t like being gross in class.”

“Alright, they normally practice after class, but you won’t have any problems if their schedule ever changes,” she said. “You’ll have access to the showers with the rest of your teammates.”

“Great, thanks so much,” I told her with my most charming smile. “Have a good evening, Coach.”

“You, too, Percy,” she told me before heading into her office.

"Tyson," I said when Miss Angela wasn’t hovering over us the next day. "How early do you get to school?"

"Very early," he said. "I wait for them to open the doors."

"Wait, really?" I asked.

He nodded. "I like school. It's nice here."

Seriously, how shit were his foster parents or whoever was looking after him? Meriwether might be nice for no grades, but literally none of the other kids talked to him. It sucked a lot to have no one talk to you because you were the freak that always got in trouble and yelled back at the teachers which was at least a real reason to not talk to you. But Tyson wasn't like that. He should have friends, but nobody wanted to try just because his parents sucked.

"Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kinda bad at getting to school on time," I said. Even that morning I’d slid into my seat barely on time. Mrs. Meredith had sent me a warning look, but she hadn’t chewed me out or anything.

"That's okay," Tyson said, putting his big hand on my shoulder and pretty much covering the whole thing. "You're trying."

I blinked up at him. It sounded like something Miss Angela would say to us. "Uh, yeah, thanks. Anyways, I figured I might have an easier time getting to class if I got ready at school. What do you think?"

"How would you get ready at school?" he asked, frowning as he pulled his hand back.

"The showers are open before class so maybe I should do it here and then I'll be on time," I said.

"But," Tyson said then lowered his voice, "there are other people in the bathrooms here."

"I know," I said, matching his volume. "Would you maybe want to come with me so I'm not alone? I mean, you come to school so early anyways. It's not too much trouble, is it?"

Tyson shook his head. “No, it’s no trouble. I can be there.”

I smiled. I didn’t really need him to be there for me to shower, but it was nice knowing he’d be there if I did need help. I might have even hugged him if he didn't smell quite so bad. "Thanks, Big Guy. It means a lot, really."

"You're welcome," he said, smiling back at me.

That evening when Mom got home, I told her, "I'm gonna have to go to school earlier from now on."

"Why? Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "But I'm gonna start showering at school before class. It's the best I can do if Tyson can't get access to a private bathroom."

Mom's expression turned all gooey and sappy.

"Mom," I started complaining even before she pulled me in to start kissing my cheek a hundred times.

"You're so sweet I could just eat you up," she said, nuzzling against my face.

"Don't joke about that. It happened to my dad once."

Mom laughed so hard she snorted, and she covered her mouth with her hand. "Percy!"

"What?"

"You shouldn't say that."

"But you laughed."

"Oh, I know, I shouldn't have," she said. "But I just wasn't expecting you to say that."

"You said it first."

She pouted. "Are you really comparing me to that Titan? Because I'm very different from him, okay? He was worried about getting overthrown, but I just made a very cute baby."

"Mom," I complained.

"Okay," she said, mimicking my tone. She pressed one last kiss to my cheek before straightening up. "Do you want me to get up earlier with you?"

"I shouldn't really have to get up earlier," I said. "The whole point is I'm not showering here anymore."

"Alright, well, tell me if you do," she said, brushing back my hair. "I'm gonna go get changed and make dinner, okay?"

"Okay."

Things were a little chaotic the next morning. I'd set up my bag the night before, but I nearly showered on autopilot. Then I rushed to brush my teeth since I didn't have a toothbrush or toothpaste at school. I skipped the toasting for breakfast again.

"Have a good day, sweetheart," Mom told me as I passed her.

"You too," I told her before heading out the door.

I really needed to get better at skateboarding. If I could skate to the subway then maybe I'd have more time to actually toast my breakfast.

I found Tyson waiting at the school entrance for me, sitting on the school steps. "Hey."

He perked up, getting to his feet. "Hi, Percy."

"Doors are open, yeah?" I asked.

He nodded.

"You don't gave to wait outside for me," I told him as I pulled open the door. "It'll get cold in winter."

"Okay," he said.

We headed to the locker room. Muffled music came from the weight room that only the older students had access to. No one, however, was in the locker room.

"Let's be quick while they're busy," I told Tyson.

He nodded, hurrying to grab his things. He took the far stall again, and I showered quickly since I didn't need to wash my hair. I stood guard for Tyson, but I didn't have to wait all that long for him.

"Thanks, Big Guy," I told him again when he came out of the shower.

He followed me back to our lockers to grab our things.

"Hey, do you want this?" I asked, pulling out the deodorant stick I'd barely used since I'd brought it to school new. "I don't really like the smell so Mom got me a new one, but it seems like a waste to throw it out when I just opened it."

Tyson didn't say anything for a moment, just shuffled his feet. "Okay. Litter is bad."

"Cool," I said and tossed it to him.

He caught it easily. He put it on before setting the stick in his locker. It didn't fix his clothes being ratty, but he smelled way better.

"Ready for class?" I asked.

"Yes," he said with a nod.

We made it to class a good ten minutes before school started which was probably the earliest I'd ever been to anything.

"Boys," Mrs. Meredith greeted us with a smile. "You're here a little early."

"Is that okay?" I asked.

"Perfectly fine," she said. "I'm just finishing organizing."

"We won't get in your way," I said, and Tyson nodded.

"Thank you," she said. "You didn't have any questions or something, did you?"

I shook my head. "No, just early."

"Well, nothing wrong with being a little early," she said before going back to putting out the assignments and making sure books were in the right places.

Me and Tyson sat in the corner out of her way in the reading nook. I asked him if he read any books about the sea, and then we spent the rest of the ten minutes trying to find one for him to read. I didn't find 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which kind of sucked.

We went to our seats when the other kids started coming it.

My school routine started coming together after that. I showed up early to shower at school and left my hairwashing to the weekend at home. Miss Angela tutored Tyson often, and I answered all her questions about my dyslexia and my handwriting so Tyson wouldn't feel singled out. I did more of my guitar practice in class so I could skate in the afternoon. I did little libations for Dad before dinner, and hung out with Mom after, playing guitar for her while she wrote. She also told me that Chiron would let me stop by camp for a visit over the winter holidays so I had that to look forward to.

After a couple weeks with my skateboard down in the underground parking, I took it for a spin outside. Hitting any sidewalks cracks was jarring so I didn't go nearly as fast as I could. It was a stupid thing to worry about. I'd killed a Minotaur. I could skate over a sidewalk crack.

I skated to school the next morning. I might have actually taken longer than just walking with all the people I had to dodge on the sidewalk.

"You got a skateboard?" Tyson asked when I arrived.

"Yeah, I'm not very good yet," I said, picking up my board. "Do you like skateboards?"

He shook his head, tensing up. "I'm too big. I don't want to break it."

"That's fine," I said, holding up a hand. "I'm not gonna force you to try it out or anything."

"Okay," he said, dropping his shoulders.

Now that I was at school, I didn't have a place to put the board. I brought it with me into the locker room. I could at least fit the pads in the locker, but not the helmet.

"Mrs. Meredith?" I asked when we got to the classroom. "Is it okay if I leave my board here during the day?"

She sent a narrowed eye look to my board. "Do you wear a helmet?"

I lifted up my helmet, holding it by the ear strap. "Mom made me swear to."

And my cousin would curse me if I didn't, but I wasn't going to be able to explain that if I said it.

"Alright, yes, you can leave it by the coat rack," she said.

"Thanks," I said, setting the board against the wall and hanging up my helmet on one of the hooks.

That afternoon, I skated my way over to the skatepark after saying goodbye to Tyson. I stopped inside the entrance, taking a better look around the place. There was obviously the rail by the fence, but there was plenty of flat, smooth concrete between a bowl on one side and some ramps and ledges on the other. A couple guys were already using the ramps, and two girls were standing on the edge of the bowl. They were all wearing helmets and the girls had on kneepads so at least I wasn't completely lame.

"Hey, aren't you in band class?"

I turned around to see a girl around my age with dark blond hair with a streak of red dye running through it. "Yeah, don't you do percussion?" I asked her.

"Yeah, and you play guitar, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm Percy," I told her.

"Ellie," she said.

"You ever played a drum kit?" I asked.

"I mean, I've played all the instruments individually," she said with a smile. "Why, you recruiting me?"

I shrugged. "We're allowed to make a band. We've already got two guitarists and a bassist."

"And who's gonna sing?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I dunno. We can figure it out later."

"How long you been skating for?" she asked, gesturing to my board.

"Like two weeks," I said.

"Learned to ollie yet?"

I shook my head "I've tried, but I haven't ever had it work."

"Here, I'll show you while I wait for my friends to show up," she said, motioning for me to follow her.

She explained and demonstrated it a few times, and I finally got it on the third try.

"What the hell," I said. "I've been doing it all week and haven’t gotten it once.”

She laughed. "Helps to have someone show it to you first."

"Guess so," I said. "Thanks."

"No problem," she said.

"What's up," someone shouted from behind me. "The party has arrived!"

Ellie scoffed. "That's Danny. Ignore him."

"Hey, that is so mean," Danny said, coming to a stop by us. He was taller than both of us, but built like a twig so his orange flannel shirt looked like a sail on him. "Who's this guy?"

"This is Percy," Ellie said. "He's cool."

"Your parents named you after Thomas the Tank Engine?" a guy asked. He was a little taller than me with overgrown mouse brown hair and a black beanie. "That sucks, bro."

"I got named after Perseus from the Greek myth actually," I said.

"No offense, but you should go by that, that's way cooler," the third guy said. He was the shortest of the three, and he had straight hair down almost to his shoulders. He looked like he was using his beanie to keep his bangs out of his eyes.

"Family name," I said. "I'll get confused with the other Perseus if I do."

"Ah, man, that blows," he said.

"So this is Tyler," Ellie said, gesturing to the Tank Engine guy then the other, "That's Ben."

"Hi," Tyler said, giving me a wave.

"Sup," Ben said, nodding to me.

"Percy's a baby skater so we have to be nice to him," Ellie told them. "He just did his first ollie."

"Nice," Danny said. "That took me so long to do."

"How d'you know each other?" Ben asked. "You guys meet here?"

I shook my head.

"We're in band class together at my shitty school," Ellie said with a downward twist to her lips.

"Hey, you don't get to complain," Tyler said. "My mom's giving me shit for one C on homework not even a test, homework, and you don't get grades."

"It still sucks," Ellie complained, crossing her arms.

"We miss you, too," Danny said, patting Ellie's shoulder.

"We all went to elementary school together," Ben told me.

"Yeah, then my parents decided we were too good for normal middle school," Ellie said.

"Do you want to complain or do you wanna skate?" Tyler asked.

"Skate," Ellie said.

Danny started chanting, clapping in time with his words, "Skate, skate, skate."

"Alright, let's put new guy to the test," Ben said.

"I'm really not that good," I warned them, but it turned out to not be an issue.

The four of them showed me the tricks they were working on, and I did my best to follow along clumsily. Knee pads, seriously, saving grace. Wouldn’t have knee caps without ‘em.

I checked my watch, "Oh, shit, I'm late. I gotta go."

"Bye, Percy!" Ellie called as I jumped off my board so I could dodge people more easily as I sprinted for the subway. 

I jiggled my leg the whole trip back and ran out of the subway car as soon as it stopped. I took the stairs two at a time. I reached our floor at the same time Mom was putting her key into the lock.

"Percy?" she asked, staring at me like she wasn't sure I was really there.

"Sorry, I thought I was gonna be late," I said, trying to get my breath back.

"Why were you late?" she asked as she got the door open. "It wasn't because of Tyson, was it?"

I followed her inside and set down my board and backpack. "Nah, nothing like that. I tried out the skatepark, lost track of time."

"Oh, well, you made it home for dinner, and that's what matters," she said. "I'm gonna go change and get cooking."

"Okay," I said, flopping down on the couch.

"How was the skatepark?" Mom asked when she came out of her bedroom.

“Good,” I told her, following her to the kitchen. “One of the girls from my music class skateboards, too.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked.

“Yeah, she does percussion so maybe I can convince her to play drums with us,” I said.

“You’re starting a band now?” she asked as she started pulling out ingredients.

“I mean, we could,” I said with a shrug. “Two guitars, a bassist, and a drummer can be a band. It has to be more fun than just kind of practicing on our own like we are now.”

“What music would you play?” she asked. “Beatles covers?”

“We could. I don’t know. We could play whatever we want,” I said. “Mr. Nick would let us. Maybe not something explicit, but we don’t even have a singer yet so.”

Mom grinned as she finished setting things out on the counter. “That sounds great, Percy. You want to help chop?”

“I can,” I said. I had to stop talking to focus on not slicing off a fingertip. Sword skills were definitely non-transferable.

“I think it’d be really great if you guys could make a band,” Mom said as she prepped chicken. “You seem like you take guitar so seriously, but you should have some fun with it, too.”

“I am having fun with it,” I said. “I mean, don’t you have fun when you write?”

“I mean, I guess,” she said with a sigh, pausing and lowering her hands. “It doesn’t always feel fun. Sometimes it’s like a compulsion or something. There’s these ideas in my head, and they won’t leave me alone until I get it out even if it’s bad at first, but I have to get them right in the end. Is playing guitar like that for you?”

“I don’t feel like it’s in my head or whatever,” I said. “I don’t know. I heard Lysander and those other guys play, and I want to be able to do stuff like that, and when I, like, finally get a Beatles song right, I just want to do it all over again, but better.”

“Yeah,” Mom said, picking up her hands and going back to prepping. “I think a band would be really good for you.”

Chapter Text

The next day in music class, I spotted Ellie as she was coming in and waved to her, “Hey.”

She sighed and turned towards me. “Are you seriously going to make me join your band?”

“We’re making a band?” Claire asked.

“You should totally join our band,” Joshua said.

“Do you even know what kind of music you would play?” Ellie asked.

“Rock,” I said with a shrug.

She gave me an unimpressed look.

“If you want to play something different, you should join the band to have a say,” I told her with a smile.

“You guys are starting a band?” Mr. Nick asked as he approached our corner of the room.

“Maybe,” Ellie said. “Do you even have a drum kit?”

Mr. Nick gestured over to the last practice room in the corner. “Yeah, we keep it in the big practice room. It’s usually a little distracting to other students so this was the most practical option.”

I grinned over at Ellie. 

She sighed. “Fine, but I don’t want to play anything dumb.”

“What are we counting as dumb?” Joshua asked.

“Let’s not call any music dumb,” Mr. Nick said, holding up his hands.

“I dunno, soft rock?” Ellie said with a shrug.

“Genres can be quite broad so there’s no reason to cut one off entirely rather than finding the part of it you enjoy,” Mr. Nick said. “Elton John and Fleetwood Mac are both considered soft rock, and even some Beatles songs are soft rock.”

She huffed. “The Beatles are basic.”

“What did you say?” I asked.

“You don’t have to like the Beatles, but it’s not very polite to insult them to one of their fan’s faces,” Mr. Nick said.

“You like the Beatles?” Ellie asked me. “That’s so lame.”

“Have you ever even listened to the Beatles?” I asked.

“Yeah, like ‘Yellow Submarine’ or whatever,” she said.

“Okay so you’ve listened to one song total, and you think you know what you’re talking about?” I asked her, turning my chair more towards her.

“Yeah, dude, they’re old, who cares?” she asked. “They’re overrated.”

“No, they’re not,” I insisted. “Their songs are really good.”

“Not that good, other people have done better,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Oh yeah? Name one,” I challenged her. “Oh, how about this, name one that wasn’t inspired by the Beatles.”

Her face turned red.

“Why don’t we all calm down a little,” Mr. Nick said. “Percy, not everyone has to like the Beatles just because you do. Ellie, there’s no need to insult what other people like even if it’s not to your taste. We’re all here because we enjoy and appreciate music.”

“I like the Beatles,” Joshua said with a shrug. “Haven’t learned to play anything of theirs, but they’re good.”

“I’m not joining if I have to play the stupid Beatles,” Ellie said, crossing her arms.

“They’re not—,”

“Percy, please,” Mr. Nick said, holding up a hand towards me. “Ellie, I have already told you not to insult what your fellow students like. I don’t want to have to give you another warning. If you would still like to be in a band together, I’m sure you, as a group, can find music you all would like to play.”

I stared up at Mr. Nick like he’d grown a second head. A teacher had never defended me against another student before. Not for something as small as insulting a band instead of me personally, and especially not if I’d started arguing back.

Ellie didn’t uncross her arms, but she nodded.

“Okay, what kind of music do you all like aside from the Beatles?” Mr. Nick asked.

“I like rock, pretty much whatever kind,” Joshua said with a shrug.

“I mean, I mostly listen to whatever’s on the radio,” Claire said. “I’m okay with doing rock.”

That said almost nothing about what music they’d actually want to play. A lot of different kinds of songs got labeled rock. I turned towards Ellie. “I like the White Stripes.”

She blinked at me. “Seriously?”

I nodded. “I got Elephant on CD.”

She grinned. “I can do White Stripes.”

“Have you learned any of their music?” I asked. “Cause I haven’t.”

“Nah, but I’m sure I can figure it out,” she said.

“I thought White Stripes only had two people in their band and no bassist,” Mr. Nick said.

“Sounds like a problem to me,” Joshua said.

“What about the Strokes?” Ellie asked. “Pretty sure they’ve got a bassist.”

“Haven’t heard of them,” I admitted.

“You probably have. ‘Last Nite’ was pretty popular when it came out,” she said. “I can bring in my CD.”

“Sounds like a plan for tomorrow,” Mr. Nick said then turned to Ellie. “How about for today we get you familiar with the drum kit?”

“Yeah, let’s do it,” Ellie told him.

They headed for the practice room in the back corner with the drum kit.

“I can’t believe you made us into a band,” Claire said.

“What, me?” I asked.

“You’re the one who found us a drummer,” Joshua said. “Think that makes it your fault.”

“If you don’t want to be in a band, just say it,” I told them.

“I don’t have a problem being in a band. I just don’t want to have to name it,” Claire said. “Nose goes.”

Claire and Joshua both had their fingers on their noses before I could do anything.

“Come on, guys,” I said. “I don’t know how to name anything. We’re gonna end up sounding stupid.”

“Never said we didn’t have veto power,” Claire said with a grin.

“Auto-veto to anything with a pun in it,” Joshua said.

“So you’re saying we can’t name ourselves the Beatles?” I asked.

“Absolutely not,” Joshua said with a grin.

I sighed. “There goes my only option.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not like we’re signing with a record label tomorrow,” Claire said.

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to come up with anything,” I said.

“You snooze you lose,” she said unsympathetically.

Ellie brought in her CD of the Strokes’ first album. I had actually heard ‘Last Nite’ before, but not the rest of their album. Joshua was more into their sound than Claire was. We asked her what sort of music she liked, and she kept listing pop songs that didn’t have any guitar in them before finally saying her mom liked Pat Benatar.

“We can work with that,” Joshua said. “She definitely has guitar in her songs.”

“All I know is ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’,” I admitted.

“Better than knowing nothing,” Ellie said. “Gotta start somewhere.”

Ellie was definitely the closest to me in terms of taste aside from her ridiculous Beatles slander, and more than once Claire had to tell us off for talking about bands and albums we weren’t working on learning when Mr. Nick was out of the practice room. He helped us a lot to keep us on task and get music for the songs we wanted to play. He even taught us how to practice individually and as a band over the next few weeks. It wasn’t the same as learning from Lysander, but it was pretty cool.

After school, I kept working on my skateboarding with Ellie and her friends. I couldn’t do any real tricks or use the specialty stuff in the skate park yet, but my stops and turns were much better. I could even jump up onto a curb. It helped a lot with actually weaving through people to get to the subway station rather than having to pick my board up and run.

The only real issue was everything going on with Tyson. Miss Angela helped him a lot with schoolwork, and he smelled fifty percent better now that he showered regularly, but nothing else was improving. The rest of our classmates still refused to sit anywhere near us whether with Mrs. Meredith or in Spanish or at lunch or recess. Tyson never got passed to when we played sports in gym, or worse, kids hit him from behind with the ball. Then I had to sit in the corner when I snapped at them for doing that. Tyson always tried to come sit with me, but he still had to participate in class. Mom regularly tried to call CPS since Tyson coming to school with dirty clothes was a clear sign of neglect, but they kept insisting he didn’t exist. I hugged her a lot after those phone calls.

“Hey, Mom,” I said one Friday afternoon not long before Halloween. “Could I get some money for this weekend?”

That was the downside to no longer having a summer job or a dorm room to sell candy out of. I had absolutely no cash of my own.

“What do you need money for?” she asked.

“We wanna go thrift shopping tomorrow afternoon,” I said.

“Who’s we?” she asked.

“Me, Ellie, Danny, Tyler, and Ben,” I said.

“Uh huh,” she said, using that tone she always did whenever Ellie came up. “What time and which stores?”

“Like around two,” I said before rattling off the store names.

“Alright,” she said. “How much money do you need?”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on getting that much, but I was gonna see if I could get something in Tyson’s size. Even second hand clothes have to be better than what he has now.”

She sighed then shook her head. “I’ll give you as much as I can scrounge up, okay? Just spend it wisely.”

“I will. I’m not gonna get him something he won’t be able to wear or won’t like,” I said.

Not that there was a wide set of options there. Tyson had at most three outfits total. Maybe I could find him something ocean themed.

Mom and I left at the same time the next afternoon. She headed off to go grocery shopping while I skated off to join my friends.

“Come on,” Tyler said, leading the way into the first store. “We need to get Percy some real clothes.”

“Pretty sure I’m wearing real clothes right now,” I said.

“No offense, but it’s all lame,” Ben said. “How are you going to skate and be in a band and dress like that?”

I looked down at my plain gray hoodie, blue t-shirt, and jeans. “It’s jeans and a t-shirt. Everyone wears them.”

Ben was also wearing jeans, though his were baggier than mine, and his t-shirt sported the Led Zeppelin logo.

“It’s not that deep,” Danny said. “Just get what you like.”

“Whatever,” I said and started looking through the shirts they had. I kept more of an eye out for anything that might be Tyson’s size, but I didn’t have much luck.

“Here,” Ellie said, holding a shirt out to me.

“What is it?” I asked, taking the hangar from her.

“Long sleeve for layering,” she said. “It’ll be great in winter.”

It was plain black and slightly too large for me, but hard to say no to such a cheap price that I ended up getting it.

We went to the next store, but it looked like it mostly had girl’s clothes. All the guys started picking over the shirts, but I joined Ellie over by the jewelry since there wasn’t enough space for all four of us.

“I thought you weren’t into jewelry,” I said as she picked through the rings on the counter.

“I don’t like the lame stuff,” she said. “Plastic breaks too easy, and so much jewelry is just like flowers or obnoxious, and ooh.”

She pulled out a silver ring that looked like two skeleton arms curling around to hold hands. “See, now that’s cool.”

She put the ring on, but it was too large for her finger. She sighed as she set it back. “What about you?”

"What about me?" I asked.

"Do you see anything you like?"

"Uh, guys don't wear jewelry," I said.

"Yeah, they do," she said, giving me a skeptical look. "Aren't you literally wearing a necklace right now?"

My hand went to my throat. My camp necklace was still there with its one bead. "It's not really jewelry."

"Oh, my bad, a leather necklace is too manly to be jewelry," she said, pitching her voice deeper to mock it.

"Ellie," I complained.

"Wait, are you not growing your hair out so you'll look more like a front man?" she asked, back to her normal voice.

"I'm not growing it out. I just haven't gotten around to getting my hair cut," I said, tugging one of the curls at the front of my head straight to check its length.

It went past my nose.

Ellie gave me a look.

"Okay, I should get a hair cut," I said. “But having long hair doesn't mean I have to wear jewelry."

"No one has to wear jewelry," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's just fun to. Here."

She plucked a pair of earrings off a stand then held them up to my ear. I sighed and tilted my head so I could properly see them in the mirror the store had set up. The studs were little silver wolf heads. They kinda worked with my longer black hair, but my ears weren't pierced.

"They got anything with a shark?" I asked, pulling back from her hand.

"Why a shark?" she asked, putting the earrings back.

"My cousin calls me baby shark," I admitted.

She smiled. "Is that your actual cousin or your cousin's kid?"

"What? How do you know about that?" I asked.

Her smile widened into a smirk. "Claire's in my class."

"And you talk about me?" I asked, horrified.

"Not like a ton, but we didn't talk at all before you started our band," she said with a shrug. "The only thing we had in common at first was you and Joshua."

"Oh," I said.

"So, is it your cousin or your cousin's kid that calls you baby shark?" she asked again.

I sighed. "Technically, it's a different cousin's kid than the ones I told Claire and Joshua about."

"What the fuck?" she asked. "How many cousins do you have, and how many kids do they have?"

"You don't want to know," I told her. I headed away from the jewelry towards the jackets, and Ellie came with me.

"Well, now I gotta know, come on, how many?"

"I literally could not count them," I said, heading for the end of the row with the largest sizes. "I haven't even met all of them. I've met both my uncles, none of my aunts, and like three of my cousins, and only some of their kids. I've got half siblings I haven't met either."

"Dude, what? How does your family have that many people in it?" she asked. She pulled out a jacket that was mostly purple and immediately shoved it back onto the rack.

"They're old fashioned, I guess," I said. "They just have tons of kids."

"Your family’s not like Amish or something, is it?" she asked, flipping through more of the coats.

"Not at all, we're not even Christian," I said.

"Oh, so you're Jewish then? Orthodox or whatever?" she asked.

"What?" I said, nearly laughing. "Uh, no, not that either."

"Then you're Muslim?" she asked, sounding confused and also a little concerned.

"No, there's other options than just those three, you know," I said.

"Okay, but I can't go around guessing all of them," she said, pulling out another coat then putting it back. "Like, what are you Hindu?"

I shook my head. "No, I’m pagan, I guess. Hellenistic.”

"Really?" she asked, turning from the coats and towards me. "That's like the Greek gods, right?"

"Yeah."

"How does that work? Are you even Greek? Like your last name is Jackson, isn't it?" she asked then her eyes got big. “Oh my God, that was so rude. You don’t have to answer that.”

"It’s fine. I mean, it’s just, well, my parents didn't get married so Jackson is my mom's name," I said, “But my dad’s like as Greek as you can get."

I pulled out the biggest coat they had. It was a letterman jacket with a black body and dark blue sleeves.

"Oh," she said awkwardly. "Um, but the pagan thing, do you just pray to all the gods? Is that rude to ask?"

I checked the size and what it was made out of, surprised to find it was made of actual wool and leather. It looked like it would be big enough for Tyson. I couldn't see any stains or tears on it.

"No, it's not rude," I said. "I mostly pray to the sea god."

I nearly said my father, but that would be way too awkward to explain, and who knew what the Mist would conjure up to cover it.

"That's...Poseidon, right?" she asked.

Thankfully no thunder or anything else rolled through. Maybe regular mortals got passes on using gods' names these days.

"Yeah," I said, checking the price tag on the jacket. I had just enough money left to cover it.

"Why him?" Ellie asked. "Is it because of the baby shark thing?"

I chuckled. "No, because of my dad. He and mom met at the beach."

"Oh, so it's the other way around," she said. "The baby shark thing is because of your dad, I get it now."

"Yeah, not super creative, but whatever," I said with a shrug. "I'll live."

I folded the jacket over my arm to buy when everyone else was ready to leave.

"Isn't there a music god? Shouldn't you pray to him since you made our band?" Ellie asked.

"There is, and I could, but I've already asked him to do a lot for me so I don't want to bother him," I said, following her down the row of jackets to the smaller sizes and towards the front of the store.

"You don't want to bother a god?" she asked. "That's a thing you can do? In church they always tell us to pray more to God."

"Yeah," I said. "But Phoebus isn't just the god of music. He, uh, well, he kinda sent a lot of people to help me out and keep me safe and even gave me a gift. I don't need to pray to him over just playing guitar or joining a band or whatever. I'm doing okay on my own."

Apollo really had since his son Chiron had come to teach me personally at Yancy, and Lysander had helped me out a lot, too. Darryl wasn't his daughter, but I wouldn't have met her if Apollo hadn't made Camp Half-Blood. I should thank him, probably. I did on Olympus, but that was only for one thing, not everything else he'd done for me. How would I do that when I couldn't burn offerings, though? Was a libation enough?

"You really believe that, don't you?" Ellie asked, pausing her jacket browsing.

"Believe what?" I asked.

"That a Greek god helped you out," she said. "Like that it actually happened."

I shrugged. "It did happen, though. My life's a lot better now, not just because of Phoebus, but he helped, too."

"There's really a Greek god named Phoebus?" she asked. "I don't remember one of them being named that."

"It's an epithet," I said. "His actual name is Apollo."

I put my hand up over my eyes as sunlight streamed in from the store's front window.

"Oh, I know Apollo. Why don't you just call him that?" she asked.

"Name’s are powerful. I only use it when I’m praying," I said.

"That sounds so weird, but I guess that's because God doesn't have a name," she said.

"I guess," I said with a shrug.

"I didn't know you were so religious, though," she said. "You seem so normal."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She shrugged. "A lot of the really religious people I know are, I don't know, judgy. They hate how I dress and act like I'm not good enough for God or whatever."

I frowned. Sure, multiple gods had either threatened or tried to kill me, but I had actually done something. Ellie just wore a lot of black cargo pants and vans and put temporary dye in her hair. "Why would people say that to you?"

She didn't answer, reaching out to finger the sleeves of one of the coats instead.

"Well, I don't care about your clothes or whatever. I'm only judgy about littering and stuff. That actually hurts people," I told her.

"Greek gods care about littering?"

"Well, not all of the Olympians are nature gods, but a lot have some aspect of nature in their domains and all the nymphs definitely care," I said.

"Nymphs?" she asked.

"Yeah like naiads and dryads, some are associated with animals, too," I said. "They're all minor nature deities."

Ellie chuckled. "I thought that was just stuff from the Chronicles of Narnia."

"I don't know what that is, but they're not from a book or something," I said.

"The Chronicles of Narnia are super Christian so yeah, I wouldn't expect you to know it."

"Oh, yeah, probably not then."

"You know, the whole Perseus being a family name makes way more sense now," she said.

"Yeah, Mom picked him because he had a happy ending," I said. "Most Greek heroes don't."

"Yeah, that does kinda suck on the naming front," she agreed then moved away from the rack. "Ready to head out?"

"Just gotta buy this," I said, raising the letterman jacket.

"You're not seriously going to wear that thing, are you?" she asked, pointing to the jacket.

"No, it's not for me," I said. "It's a gift for a friend."

"Kind of a big gift," she said.

I shrugged.

"Okay, whatever, it's your money," she said.

She went with me to checkout before we met up with the other guys to go to the next store. I had to fold up the jacket to fit it into my backpack, but I got it to work. I was out of cash so I wandered around behind everyone else as they bought shirts or whatever else they wanted for the rest of the afternoon.

Chapter Text

I showed Mom my purchase when I got back.

"What do you think?" I asked. "It's not a winter coat, but it's what I could find in his size."

"It's actual wool and leather," Mom said, inspecting the tags. "It may not be the best winter coat, but that should definitely keep him warmer especially if he's got a hat and a scarf. How much was this?"

"Almost all my money," I said. "I did get a long sleeve shirt for me, though."

Mom's eyebrows went up. "You got a pretty good deal on it then. Tyson's really this big?"

"Yeah, if anything that might be small," I said.

She shook her head. "That big at your age."

"Pretty sure he's younger than me," I said which just made her look sadder. "Anyways, would it be weird if I just gave it to him? I haven't asked about his birthday, and it's Halloween not Christmas next week."

She looked over the jacket with a frown. "I'm not sure. You see him alone in the mornings so at least it won't be public. Maybe we just put it in a bag for him and make it not too fancy? Or do you want to be casual about it like here have a coat?"

"Maybe casual is just better. That's what I did for the deodorant."

"He hasn't run out, has he?" she asked.

I shook my head. "He does put on like extra, but he's got plenty left still."

"Okay then let me get this cleaned up so you can give it to him on Monday."

"Thanks, Mom," I said.

"Of course," she said, leaning over to kiss my temple. "You're welcome, sweetheart."

That evening, after a little prayer to my father, I poured out a larger libation than normal for Apollo. Dear Apollo, I know I said thank you already, but that was just for the plane ride. So thanks for everything else.

It sounded so lame even just in my head as a prayer. I put the juice away and rubbed at my cheeks to try and get the warmth to go away. Why was it so hard to say thank you? I wasn't even looking Apollo in the face.

Apollo didn't answer me, but he couldn't answer me all the time. It's not like I was his kid. Still, it was better that I'd told him even if he didn't answer.

First thing Monday morning, I met up with Tyson in the school entryway.

"Good morning," he told me.

"Morning," I said as I pulled my backpack free. "Check this out."

I revealed the letterman jacket I bought him, holding it up by the shoulders.

He didn't smile or anything. He just said, "Oh, it's too big for you."

"Well, yeah, 'cause it's for you," I said, holding it out towards him. "Do you like it?"

"It's for me?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, lowering the jacket.

He buried his face in his hands and sobbed loudly.

"I'm sorry," I told him. "I didn't mean to make you upset. I can just take it back since you don't like it."

I actually probably couldn’t. Most thrift stores were final sale only.

"No!" he said, latching onto the jacket with one of his big, meaty fists. "It's my first gift. I love it. It's blue. You remembered."

He continued to blubber, and I awkwardly patted his shoulder.

"Of course I remembered," I said. "We both like blue and the ocean."

Tyson rubbed his arm over his face then sniffed loudly. "Thank you, Percy," he said, though his voice was still a little wobbly.

"You're welcome," I told him, rubbing his shoulder. "Ready to get all cleaned up?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay," I said. "We can keep your jacket safe so you can wear it outside when it's cold out."

"Okay," he agreed, voice returning to normal.

We got showered, and Tyson hung up his new jacket in our classroom next to my helmet since I was still doing alright just wearing sweatshirts. Tyson seemed to be on cloud nine all day, talking both to me and Miss Angela enthusiastically and blazing through his schoolwork.

"Good job today, Tyson," Miss Angela told him with a smile.

"Thank you," he told her.

"You as well, Percy," she said to me. "You're both improving a lot. I can tell you're putting the work in, even for your handwriting."

My cheeks burned. I had been working hard on my handwriting so that she'd be able to read it better. "Thanks," I mumbled.

I headed out quickly, saying goodbye to Tyson and beelining for the skate park. No one else had arrived yet so I started practicing on my own. I ate it on my first attempt jumping down from one of large concrete steps. I rolled onto my side.

"You good?"

I glanced over at Ellie. I felt at my chin. "I'm not bleeding, am I?"

"Little bit," she said.

I pulled my hand away. Red blood was smeared over my fingers.

"You don't need the emergency room, do you?" she asked.

"Nah, I got it," I said, peeling myself up from the concrete. I made my way over to the drinking fountain to wash the blood off with Ellie following behind me. I attempted to will the water not to completely heal my chin. I wiped my chin off with the hem of my shirt, staining it with watery blood. I carefully felt around my chin and there was a little bit of a gash there, nothing serious.

"Look up," Ellie told me.

I did, squinting up at the blue sky.

"Yeah, you're okay," she said. "I think you can just put a bandaid on that. It's good you don't have to shave yet."

"Lucky me," I said, lowering my head.

"What's up?" Danny called as he skated into the park. "Woah, what'd you do to your face?"

"Crash landed on it," Ellie told him.

"Is that your first war wound?" Ben asked.

"I guess," I said, if the Ares' kids and the hellhound didn't count since they hadn’t left a mark after I’d jumped in the water.

"Check this out," Tyler said, pulling up the sleeve of his hoodie and his shirt. He had a large pink scar running up the outer edge of his forearm. "Landed and skidded like five feet on this."

"You did not skid five feet," Danny said.

"Close to it," he said, shoving down his sleeves.

"Sure," Danny said sarcastically.

"Whatever, it's a cool scar, and now my chin hurts," I said, tapping the back of my hand against it to check if it was still bleeding. My hand came away clean.

"You're fine," Ben said, waving me off. "If you're not crying like a baby, you're all good."

"Don't think that's how it works, but whatever," I said. I could finish healing it later.

I stuck it out as long as I could, but headed home when my chin opened again and started dripping blood everywhere. Some lady on the subway gave me a handful of tissues and told me to go to the ER. I thanked her, but went straight home instead.

"Percy, what happened?" Mom asked when I came in the door with blood all down my shirt. "I thought you said you could heal yourself."

"I'm fine, and I can," I said as I kicked off my shoes then made my way over to the kitchen sink. "Ellie saw me bleed so I couldn't just heal up all the way."

"I'm pretty sure the Mist would cover that," Mom said.

"Okay, well, I didn't want to test it," I said as I turned the water on.

"But you bled all over your shirt, honey," she said.

I tugged on the front of my shirt and looked down at the drips of blood all over the front of my shirt. It was light blue, probably the worst color to get blood on. I scooped up a handful of water, holding it at my chin as it dripped down my arm until it healed. "Whatever. I'll clean it up."

"Percy," Mom said.

I dumped the bloody water out of my hand into the sink. "What? I said I'd clean it."

I shut off the water then pulled off my shirt. I used the already stained shirt to dry my chin.

"Percy," she said again. "You don't have to clean up your shirt. I just meant there wasn't a reason to leave yourself still bleeding."

"I didn't. I reopened it," I said, skirting around her as much as I could in our small kitchen. “There wasn’t any water on the way back.”

"Reopened it doing what?" she asked.

"Nothing, I just reopened it," I said, heading for my room.

"Percy," she said, her footsteps trailing mine.

"Mom, it's fine, I'll deal with it," I said.

"You don't have to."

"I bled on it, I'll clean it," I said, entering my room and turning to face her.

She looked worried.

"Let me get dressed," I told her then shut my bedroom door.

"Okay," she called through the door. "I'll get started on dinner then."

"Okay," I said, maybe loudly enough to be heard through the door.

I chucked my ruined shirt into my laundry basket. I double checked my pants for blood. I sighed as I spotted a few splattered drops. I pulled my jeans off and changed into sweat pants and put on an old t-shirt.

I grabbed my Beatles book and sat down on the floor. I flipped through the pages. I really needed to learn to play fingerstyle. I couldn't play a lot of the Beatles intros without it, and Mr. Nick hadn't taught us yet. I sighed and flipped to the next song I hadn't learned yet. I practiced until Mom called me to dinner.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Mom said as she finished serving. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset," I said.

I kept my eyes on my plate. She'd made meatloaf. Gabe was the only one that had really liked meatloaf. Why had she made meatloaf? I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, and she was frowning at me.

"I'm not," I said again. "I messed up the shirt so I'll clean it."

"Well, I feel like you're upset," she said quietly. "You don't go hide out in your room unless I say something you don't like."

"What? That's not true," I said. "You said I bled on my shirt, and I did so I'll clean it up."

"I don't care about the shirt!" she snapped.

I stared at her, frozen, my mouth going dry. She'd never yelled at me before. Ever. No matter what I'd done or how much trouble I'd caused.

A scrape to my chin was enough to change all that? Some blood on a shirt? After everything?

"I'm sorry," she said quickly, brushing her fingers under her eyes. "I didn't mean to yell, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. But I don't care about the shirt. If you can heal yourself, you should heal yourself. You shouldn't stay hurt just to hide who you are."

"Okay," I said.

"Okay," she said, sounding relieved.

I shoved my food around on my plate, but I didn't really eat. I eventually sighed and asked, "Can I borrow the computer?"

"Yeah, of course," she said.

"Thanks," I said, getting up from the table.

I threw out my food rather than saving it. I rinsed my plate then went to boot up the computer. I pulled up my email. I didn't have any new unread messages, but I opened up a new draft to Lysander.

Hey,

You said your mom freaked out because of your healing, right? How do I stop that?

I hit my chin skateboarding, and my mortal friend saw me bleed so I didn't heal it all the way. I got blood on my shirt and my mom freaked out about it and I don't know why she did when my chin was fine and I told her I'd clean the shirt.

Thanks,

Percy

It took me a while to double check everything was spelled correctly. Lysander responded to me a couple days later when Mom was back to normal aside from the fact she tensed up every time I came home after skateboarding.

Hey,

Hope your chin's all better now :)

As for how to stop your mom from freaking out, I unfortunately don't have a good solution :(

It's kinda what moms do when you get hurt. Did you cut up your chin really badly? That's usually what freaks my mom out so if you can avoid the big stuff maybe it'll be okay.

-Lysander

I sighed. That didn't really help me at all.

Hey,

No it wasn't really that bad. It just dripped the whole way home. Thanks anyways.

-Percy

Halloween arrived without a response from Lysander though Darryl sent a gif of a carved pumpkin to all the counselors and all her siblings. Normally, my boarding schools did some kind of party, but Meriwether only let kids wear costumes to class so I didn't do anything beyond gifting Tyson a whole bag of candy.

"Don't eat it all at once," I warned him. "Then you'll just throw it all up."

"I won't," he promised. He ate a Reese's Cup before putting the bag away.

Ellie invited me over to Danny's place as we were leaving band, telling me to dress in all black. I had the black shirt we’d found thrift shopping, and I did have a black hoodie, but the best I could do for pants was dark wash jeans. Mom let me go so long as I promised to get back by nine.

Danny's mom was super tall like he was, but she had shorter hair than he did. She forced us all to eat some dinner before she let us bust out the face paint. Danny tried to do a skull on Ben's face in glow in the dark face paint, but me and Tyler couldn't stop laughing at how goofy it was turning out to be and Ellie couldn’t stop backseat painting.

"I can't go out like this!" Ben shouted at him when he saw himself in the bathroom mirror.

He washed it off then Danny's mom did all our make up. It was still more cartoonish than genuinely scary, but it was way better than Danny's version. She also made us put reflective tape on our backs before letting us out, but she agreed to put it on down along our spines and the backs of our arms to match with the skeleton theme. We skated around his neighborhood shouting trick or treat at people. Danny's mom sent me home with a bag full of their leftover candy so it was unfortunately limited on actually good candy.

Mom let me stay up late with her to watch a scary movie and eat a bunch of blue candy she’d bought for us, but only after she took a photo of my face.

I got emails from Annabeth and Will. Annabeth complained about Chiron not letting them celebrate Halloween because he considered it a fake holiday. In protest, she'd borrowed the Big House's kitchen and made as many cookies as she could. She sent me a picture of the world's lumpiest sugar cookie and the most blobish icing ghost. I told her she'd done a good job anyways.

Will told me all about seeing his mom again, and how they got to play guitar and sing together. She got him a notebook and a new winter coat, but he didn't add any pictures of them. He did mention that he ate so many cookies he nearly puked, and Annabeth let him stay in cabin six instead of on his own in cabin seven for the night. He assured me that it was super depressing because everything was gray inside. I told him not to eat so many cookies next time, but I was happy he saw his mom and that he was feeling better.

Over the course of November, our band started being able to play whole songs together, simple ones, but that was better than nothing. Mr. Nick taught Claire and me the basics of fingerstyle. Joshua was way ahead of us since he'd started off on double bass, and Mr. Nick mostly checked in on him and gave him some tips on how the bass guitar was different. I practiced Beatles intros in the evening while Mom wrote.

Our group spent as long as we could at the skate park in the afternoons with winter and snow on the horizon. I also double checked Tyson wasn't cold when he was stuck with his letterman jacket and I switched to a winter coat. He assured me he wasn't, but Mom and I went to a few thrift stores to get him flannel shirts and a hat and scarf for layering. Thankfully, he didn't cry on me for the new gifts, but he definitely looked much warmer when I saw him in the mornings. I bought myself as many black and navy shirts as I could get so they wouldn't show any blood if I fell again. The spots hadn't totally come out of my light blue shirt no matter how much stain remover I'd put on.

School ended early the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so our we took advantage of it to get some extra skating hours in at the park.

"Percy?"

I turned smoothly towards the entrance on my board. "Tyson, what are you doing here?"

I moved to push myself towards Tyson when I was caught by my jacket. I turned around to see Ellie had a death grip on it. Her face had gone pure white. "What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Don't go over there," she said.

Danny, Ben, and Tyler quickly joined us, hopping off their boards. They were all about as pale as Ellie, warily watching the entrance to the park.

"Guys, it's just Tyson," I said.

"You know who he is?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, dude, he's in my class," I said, trying to turn around and pull my coat free.

Ellie refused to let go. "They let him in your class? Isn't he like an adult?"

"What? Look, I know he's tall, but I swear he's twelve," I told them, trying to meet them all eye to eye, but they were still watching Tyson. I wasn’t even sure they were blinking. "Guys, he's a foster kid with special needs. I'm helping him out."

"He's not dangerous?" Ellie asked quietly, finally meeting my eyes.

Was this what my classmates saw when they looked at Tyson? A scary adult and not an oversized kid? They all walked away to try and stay safe, and I was the lunatic who couldn't sense the danger?

I shook my head and told her, "No, not at all, I swear."

Her eyes flicked over to Tyson then back to me. "You're sure?"

"Yes, of course," I said looking between all four of them. I reached out and put my hand on Ellie's shoulder. "He wouldn't do anything to you, but if he ever tried, I'd protect you."

I felt her shoulder relax slightly.

"He's the one you gave the jacket to?" she asked.

"Yeah," I admitted. It wasn't like I could hide it with Tyson currently wearing it.

"Okay," she said, giving me a nod.

"How do you think you're going to protect anyone from him?" Danny asked. "He's like twice your size."

I shrugged. "I learned martial arts."

Sword fighting totally counted as a martial art. Wrestling Tyson though would just get me very squished.

"You're gonna Karate Kid that guy?" Ben asked.

I tried not to laugh. "Uh, not exactly. Just let me go talk to him. I swear, it's fine."

I looked over to Ellie. She stared back at me.

"Could I have my coat back?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure," she said, releasing her grip.

"Thanks."

I picked up my board and headed over to Tyson. "Hey, sorry about that. What's up?"

"It's okay," he said, shuffling his feet. "I know I scare people."

"No, you don't, they're fine," I said. "What are you doing here? I thought you didn't like skate boarding."

"I don't," he said then mumbled, "But I saw you when I was walking, and I wanted to say hi."

"Yeah, that's cool," I assured him. "Don't you live in the other direction or something? I've never seen you come this way before."

Tyson fiddled with one of the buttons on the purple flannel me and Mom had gotten him since we hadn't found something blue in his size. "I stay at school as long as I can. They closed early today. I have to go back to 72nd street."

"72nd?" I asked. "But that's my subway stop. You really live that close to me?"

"I guess so," Tyson said, still fiddling with the button. "But I don't like underground. It smells bad, and that's where the scary things all live."

"Well, I can go with you," I told him. "If you don't mind hanging out here for a bit. It's got benches and stuff."

"You would?" Tyson asked, letting go of the button.

"Yeah, I can even go with you in the mornings, too," I said. "Maybe not quite as early as you do now, but yeah."

"Okay," he said, smiling. "I can wait, and we can go together."

"Okay, cool. Thanks, man," I said.

Tyson shuffled over to the bench, taking a heavy seat down on it.

I skated back over to the guys.

"You invited him to stay?" Tyler asked incredulously.

"Guys, seriously," I told them. "He's just a really big kid, but he's not mean or scary, okay? The whole class already avoids him. Stop being dicks."

"He's not gonna cause any harm sitting on a bench," Ellie said. "It's a free country. He can sit where he wants."

"What if he gets off the bench though?" Ben asked.

"Then me and him will be heading home," I told him.

"Whatever," Danny said, getting back on his board. "Let's just skate."

I checked on Tyson every few minutes, but he seemed totally chill with just sitting on the bench and watching. He started clapping any time one of us landed a trick. The guys started off giving Tyson weird looks, but after a few rounds of his applauding, they started taking bows. Ben even did a whole twirling hand motion to go along with it.

"Happy, Big Guy?" I asked him as I walked to the subway station with him. Well, he walked. I skated to better keep up with his giant legs.

"Yes," he said. "I like your friends."

"Good," I said. "It's nice you get along."

"Mhhm," he said.

He wasn't kidding about not liking underground. He was worse than Grover. He held onto my coat sleeve, and I let him. Everyone gave us a wide berth, but I didn't mind for taking the subway. We practically got half a car to ourselves.

"What time do you want to meet up here on Monday morning?" I asked Tyson.

I cringed at his first suggestion, but I got him down to a slightly more reasonable hour eventually.

Chapter Text

The big event for Thanksgiving was the cooking. I helped Mom practically all day on Thursday with the Macy's Parade on TV in the background, but we overcooked the turkey anyways. I shredded what I'd been served and mixed it in with my mac and cheese. Mom just covered hers liberally with gravy. We saw a movie on Friday and ate leftovers. Mom and I went to an art museum on Saturday which was a mistake since it was full to bursting. I avoided anything having to do with Greek mythology. I did not need to see any of my relatives, but especially the living ones, completely nude whether or not it was true to life.

Tyson was at the subway station before me when I showed up Monday morning. I let him hold onto my coat again, and we got down to the tracks faster than we had the time before. We made it to school and showering with time to spare, and Mrs. Meredith let us hang out in the reading corner again.

Later that week, I found an email from Darryl to all the counselors.

Hey guys,

I know some of you don’t celebrate Christmas anymore, but I still want to make sure I’ve got your current addresses so if you could send them along if you’ve moved since last year, I’d appreciate it.

-Darryl

I turned around in the desk chair. “Mom?”

“What, honey?” she called from the kitchen.

“Should I be like doing Christmas gifts for my cousins or their kids?”

“Hold on a sec,” she said and then joined me at the computer. “What were you asking?”

“Christmas gifts for my cousins and their kids,” I said. “That’s normal, right? You get gifts for all your cousins? What if they don’t celebrate Christmas?”

“When you say your cousins and their kids, who are you meaning?” she asked, leaning down to take a look at the computer screen.

“Just the demigods,” I said. “Cabin four are really my cousins, but everyone else is my cousins’ kids, except for cabin ten. I’m not sure exactly what they are. It’s a lot of gifts though.”

“How many kids attend that camp?” Mom asked, turning to face me.

“I don’t know, like a hundred?”

Her eyebrows rose. “Uh, yeah, I don’t know that we have that kind of a thing in the budget, not unless you want to get them all pennies.”

“But some of them got me gifts for my birthday,” I said.

“So maybe just focus on them, and we’ll see what we can do,” Mom said, placing her hand on my shoulder. “Send your address for now, and we’ll work on it.”

“Okay,” I said, turning back towards the computer.

I triple and quadruple checked that I wrote our address correctly before sending the reply.

I spent way more time in thrift and second hand stores than any person should to keep my eye out for any gifts, either going along with my mom or our skating group that sometimes included Tyson. He was easy to get a gift for once I found blue mittens big enough for his hands while out with my mom. I'd pair it with some more candy later. I got lucky finding a book on architecture that was in pretty good shape for Annabeth. I also managed to find a guitar songbook for Will, Rolling Stones to match with the Beatles one he'd gotten me. There was a bunch of different horse related stuff, and I ended up picking out a fleece blanket with a running horse on it since that wouldn’t get messed up from shipping.

I was pretty hopeless for anyone else. I nearly prayed to Apollo for help. He had tons of kids. Surely he knew how to buy gifts.

Then I hit the jackpot for Darryl or really any Athena kid at a flea market me and my mom went to in a last ditch effort before the holidays started. A guy was selling a big plastic bin full of yarn for practically nothing. Nothing had tags so I had no idea if it was natural, but I ran my fingers over it, checking the texture. Most of it was soft, but the scratchier ones seemed like they could be wool.

Unfortunately, I then had to carry the stupid bin as I followed my mom around to get trinkets for her coworkers. I paused at a stall where an old woman with wild white hair was selling antique instruments. A lot of them were way too expensive to do anything more than wince at the price, but she had a set of harmonicas laid out. I leaned over for a closer look. The cheapest one had been engraved with a stylized sun.

"Hey, uh, how much for this harmonica?" I asked.

The woman looked down at it then squinted at my face. "It's half off."

"I'll take it," I said, setting down the bin to fish out my wallet.

I paid her, and she handed over the harmonica's case. I put it away and tucked it safely in my pocket before rejoining my mom.

"What'd you get?" she asked me as she made her way to the seller.

"A harmonica for Lysander," I said. "It's got a sun engraved on it."

Mom smiled. "Does he even play harmonica?"

I shrugged. "He can learn if he doesn't."

"Alright," she said then paid for her gifts. "Are we all set?"

I nodded. “As much as we can be.”

When we got back home, I checked my email to make sure we had the addresses we needed. Annabeth and Will had agreed to exchange gifts when I came up for the weekend after Christmas so nothing was going to be sent from then. I also had a message from Lysander.

Hey,

Your gift's gonna be a little late sorry :(

-Lysander

I wrote back right away.

Hey,

It's okay. Yours will probably be late, too.

-Percy

We couldn’t send anything out until Monday so it was a little late in the game with Christmas being in about a week. Then I sent a message to Darryl.

Hey,

I don’t think I can ship your gift to you. Is it okay if I leave it in cabin 6 for you?

-Percy

I checked my email after I helped Mom wrap up the other gifts and get them into boxes and write the addresses carefully on them. Darryl had written back.

Hey,

You didn’t have to get me a gift, but thank you. How are you going to leave it in cabin 6?

-Darryl

I replied to her.

Hey,

I’m going by camp next weekend to see Annabeth and Will.

-Percy

I got her reply a day later.

Hey,

Yeah, it’s fine to leave it there. Thanks.

-Darryl

I sent her back ok.

We had school until Thursday the week of Christmas, and honestly, the teachers didn't try very hard to keep us focused. I spent music class trying to explain how to do a jam session in music class to our band, but that didn't really work out at all.

"Let's stick to music we know," Ellie said.

"Fine," I said with a sigh.

I gave Tyson his Christmas gifts after we got off the subway. "It's not much, but merry Christmas."

"I'm not Christian," he said as he accepted the gifts with both hands.

"Oh, I'm not either,” I said. “But it’s kinda expected, and nothing wrong with giving a gift.”

"I didn't get you anything," Tyson said, slumping.

"It's okay. I didn't warn you or anything, and you're not even Christian," I said, but he didn't perk up at all.

"You can make me something if you really want to. Like a picture or if you've been tinkering on something," I said.

"You'd like one of my pictures?" he asked shyly.

"Yeah," I assured him. "I'd really like it."

"Okay," Tyson said, squaring his shoulders. "I will have a gift for you when school starts again."

"Seriously, no pressure, dude," I told him.

"But you're so nice to me," he said, carefully putting on the mittens without dropping the candy. "I want to be nice, too."

"Yeah, sure if you want to do it, that's fine," I told him, giving him a smile. "I'll see you next year, okay, Big Guy?"

"Yes, I will see you next year, Percy," he said before trudging off towards wherever he lived.

Mom arrived home with a couple of boxes. One was from Darryl and the other from Emmeline, and I set them both under our little fake Christmas tree Mom had set up.

Mom and I had a normal dinner, but we hung out watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate or eggnog, the non-alcoholic kind, instead of writing or playing guitar. We did a big batch of cookies the next day. We used food dye to make them red or green, but we set a few aside to be blue.

Like with Thanksgiving, we spent a long time cooking a big dinner on the actual Christmas day. After dinner, we opened gifts. I’d gotten Mom green seahorse earrings that I’d found in one of the thrift stores while I’d been out with my friends rather than her. She put them on right away. She gave me a book on playing guitar both acoustic and electric as well as for a variety of genres.

“Cool,” I said, flipping through it. It had some horribly tiny print in some places, but I’d figure it out, somehow.

“I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to read with your dyslexia, but I asked like three different guys what the best thing to get was, and they all mentioned that book specifically,” she said.

“I’m a lot better than I used to be,” I said, turning the page. “Darryl’s tips really helped.”

“Good, I’m glad she was able to help,” Mom said. “You used to get so frustrated with it.”

I closed the book, setting it aside. I grabbed the package from Emmeline. I had a pretty good guess of what it was given its size and weight. I opened it up to reveal a horse riding helmet.

“Aw, how nice,” Mom said.

“Do you think Phoebus put her up to it?” I asked.

“Well, she already gave you gloves and got you pants and boots. I think she was running out of options,” Mom said.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “Well, I’ll definitely use it in the summer.”

The box from Darryl was way smaller. I opened it carefully. “No way.”

“What is it?” Mom asked.

I held up the keychain with the little stuffed shark on the end. I could tell by the look of the stitches that Darryl had sewed it by hand.

“Oh, it’s so adorable,” Mom said, putting a hand over her heart.

“It’s not adorable, it’s cool,” I insisted, twisting it around. “Look, it’s got teeth.”

“Very cute teeth,” she assured me.

I shook my head, but I still put the shark on my keyring.

I cleaned up the packaging then we put on ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ate the cookies we’d made.

I took advantage of not having anything to do in the morning to sleep in. I checked my email once and found myself flooded with merry Christmas emails it took me forever to respond to. We mostly hung out the next few days as I played guitar and read through the book Mom had gotten me and she worked on her novel. She also made sure that we always went on a walk during the afternoon to make sure we stretched our legs and got outside. We went out early and bought bagels one morning just because we could.

The day before we were set to leave for camp, there was a knock on the door. Mom looked over to me, but I shook my head. Mom walked towards the door.

“No, wait, let me,” I told her, shoving my hand into my pocket as I walked around her. I wrapped my hand around Riptide. I hadn’t had to use it in so long it felt a little weird in my hand.

I approached the door quietly, listening as hard as I could. Whoever or whatever it was on the other side knocked again.

I pulled the door open quickly.

“Hey,” Lysander said with a smile.

I launched myself at him, hugging him as tightly as I could. He returned the hug, ruffling my hair in the process.

I recognized an unfortunately familiar scent on his clothes.

I pulled away from him, trying not to cover my nose. “You smell like smoke.”

“Yeah, sorry, it’s a bad habit, I know. Dad hates it. We’re not allowed to smoke anything at camp. I tried to get rid of the smell as much as I could,” he said with a smile, removing his beanie to scrub a hand through his hair then putting it back on again. 

Looking him over in the stark hallway lighting, he seemed extremely pale, especially for someone who was the son of Apollo. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he might have even lost weight.

“Isn’t smoking bad for your voice?” I asked.

“Good thing I’m not a singer then, huh?” he asked.

“Percy,” Mom said, still standing in the doorway and looking over the two of us.

“Mom, this is Lysander,” I said, gesturing to him. “I told you about him. He’s the cabin seven counselor.”

“Hi, Ms. Jackson,” Lysander said, giving my mom a smile as he offered his hand out for a shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” she said, shaking his hand. “My son’s spoken highly of you.”

Lysander grinned as he took his hand back. “He’s a good kid,” he said, ruffling my hair again.

“I’m not a kid,” I complained, trying to dodge his hand.

“Oh yeah? What are you, like, twelve?” Lysander asked.

“I’m thirteen,” I corrected him. “You were literally there at my birthday party.”

“Lysander,” my mom said. “Would you like to come in and have some cookies?”

“That’s not necessary. I don’t want to interrupt your holidays. I just thought it might be easier if I dropped off Percy’s gift in person since I was in town,” he said.

“No, it’s totally fine. We weren’t doing anything special,” Mom said, moving back and opening the door. “Unless you have somewhere you need to be?”

“No, I’m free now if you’re sure you’re okay with it,” Lysander said.

“Come on,” I said, grabbing Lysander’s arm. “You have to try Mom’s famous blue cookies. Nectar tastes like them.”

“Well, if they’re that good, I guess I have to stay,” he said, letting me drag him into the apartment.

“Oh, I didn’t really clean up much,” Mom said, immediately going around and starting to straighten up as Lysander took his boots off.

“It’s really fine, Ms. Jackson,” Lysander said. “I know I showed up unannounced.”

“No, no, it’s okay, let me just clean up a bit,” she said, fixing things up as she made her way into the kitchen. “You want any milk or eggnog or anything to go with your cookie?”

“Uh, sure, milk is fine,” he said, following her to the edge of the kitchen.

“Do you do libations?” Mom asked as she pulled the jug of milk out of the fridge. “Percy keeps pouring our milk down the sink for his father.”

“Mom,” I complained.

“No, not really,” Lysander said. “But that’s just cause I’m in a dorm with a roommate so it’s not really that easy to do any of that.”

“Oh, where are you studying?” she asked as she got out a small plate and a glass for him.

“Oberlin,” he answered.

I frowned as I stole a cookie from our collection. I’d seen that name somewhere before. “I know that school from something.”

“I’d hope so,” Lysander said. “It’s the oldest continuously running conservatory in the country.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I read it,” I said. “Actually, I think Phoebus had it on a shirt once.”

Lysander smiled. “Yeah, likely place to see it. Dad’s got a shirt for every college any of us go to.”

“Who’s going to Columbia then?” I asked. “I saw him wearing one of those, too.”

“Yeah, that’s my older sister,” he said.

“Wait, the math one?” I asked. “She got into Columbia for math?”

“Yeah, she’s getting her graduate degree in applied math there now,” he said.

“You just said she was a good math tutor,” I said.

He shrugged. “She is.”

I stared at him. Getting into Columbia for math was on a completely different level from being a good math tutor.

“I wonder what it’s like being that good at math,” Mom said as she handed over the plate of cookies and glass of milk over to Lysander. “You can sit at the table or the couch or wherever.”

“Thanks,” Lysander told her then took a seat at the table.

I sat down right next to him.

“And I don’t know,” Lysander said. “I was good not great at math. I stopped at multivariable calculus.”

Mom shook her head as she sat down. “I never even got that far. I didn’t even do pre-calculus.”

“Oh,” Lysander said awkwardly. He picked up a cookie and took a bite. “These are really good.”

“Thank you,” Mom said with a smile. “So what are you studying at Oberlin?”

“I’m getting a bachelor of music for violin,” he said.

“Violin?” I asked. “But you play guitar.”

“Guitar’s just for fun,” he said, shaking his head. “Violin’s what I’m serious about.”

“What do you want to do with violin?” Mom asked him.

“Oh, um, I, uh,” Lysander cleared his throat. “I want to become concertmaster for the New York Philharmonic.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“They’re the principle violinist. They do the solos if there isn’t a guest. They’re also the go between the orchestra and the conductor,” Lysander explained.

“Sounds like a big job,” Mom said, resting her chin on her hand. She looked at Lysander with that pinched expression she gave me on visits home last year and every year before that.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “It is. But that’s kinda why I want to do it.”

He sighed heavily.

“Is that what you’re here for?” she asked. “To see the orchestra?”

“No, I have a friend who got into Juliard. I’m here visiting him,” he said.

“You’re staying with him then?”

“Yeah, sleeping on his dorm room floor.”

“Oh no, that has to be awful for your back even at your age,” she said, frowning in concern.

He shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. I heal up quick.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you want to be in the New York Philharmonic specifically?" Mom asked.

"Well, it’s like the best orchestra. It's also New York City, who doesn't want to be in New York?" Lysander asked with a smile then shrugged. "My mom's up in Saratoga Springs, camp's out on Long Island, and, well, Dad's here, so."

Mom smiled at him. "That sounds like a lovely plan."

Lysander nodded then shoved half a cookie in his mouth.

"Are you planning on seeing Will while you're up here?" Mom asked.

Lysander shook his head, covering his mouth with his hand as he tried to finish his cookie. "Kinda hard to get out there without a car, and camp’s kind of shut down in the winter. Don't know that I'd be allowed in."

"Of course, you'd be allowed," I said. "Chiron said we could come up this weekend."

"Really?" he asked. "You're going to camp?"

"Yeah, we leave tomorrow," I said. "You could come with us."

Lysander smiled. "I'd really love to, but I have plans for New Year's Eve. I can't stay the whole time."

"Only Percy's staying through Sunday," Mom said. "I'm just driving there and back. I'd be happy to give you a ride."

"Really?" Lysander asked.

"Sure, I'm gonna have to drive up there and spend the gas money anyways," she said with a shrug. "Having some company will make the ride back easier."

"Come with us," I said, grabbing Lysander's arm.

"Alright, you've convinced me, I'll come," he said, giving me a smile before turning back to Mom. "Thank you, really. I know you don't know me very well—,"

She waved him off. "It's alright. Your Percy's cousin once removed or whatever it is."

"Yeah, I think once removed is right," he said, turning back to me to ruffle my hair.

"Stop," I complained.

He chuckled and pulled his hand away, letting me try and put my curls back in order. He finished his cookie then chugged his milk. "Have you kept up with guitar at all?"

"Yeah, of course," I said. "I'm in music class now, and I'm learning electric guitar, and Mr. Nick showed me how to play fingerstyle, and Mom just got me a big book on like everything guitar for Christmas."

"Cool," he said. "You wanna show me what you've got?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right back," I said, practically running to my room to grab my guitar.

Chapter Text

I came back out to Lysander making his way to the living room. "I've mostly done Beatles stuff since I've got their book, but we started a band at school, and we're doing the Strokes and stuff for that."

"You've already started a band?" he asked as he took a seat on the couch.

"Well, I play guitar, and Claire wanted to learn electric like me, and Joshua already played bass and Ellie was in music class already, but I met her skateboarding so I just asked if she could play a drum kit since she was doing percussion," I said then shrugged. "So we were already mostly there."

"Since when do you skateboard?" he asked.

"Um, since like September, didn't I tell you?" I asked.

"No, I think you missed it," he said.

"Oh, well, I skateboard now."

Lysander laughed.

"He's gotten pretty good," Mom said, sitting down in the one armchair we had. "Scares me half to death sometimes though. I made him swear to wear a helmet."

"Yeah," Lysander said with a smile. "Dad's the same way."

"Yeah, I know, I asked him about my healing powers because Dad didn't answer, and he said he'd curse me if I didn't wear one," I said.

"Oh, no, I could have warned you," Lysander, putting his hand over his face. "You know how Annabeth has that magic ball cap that turns her invisible?"

I nodded.

"Dad gave me and Rosie the same thing as birthday gifts one year except all it does is turn into a helmet," he said. "It doesn't do anything else. It's just a normal, regular helmet. That's it."

I put a hand over my mouth, trying to muffle my laugh.

"I think it's sweet. He wants you to stay safe," Mom said.

"I know, but it's tough when you show up with like the lamest magical gift to the capture the flag game," Lysander said with a sigh. He shook his head and turned to me. "Alright, you gonna play for me, Perce?"

"Yes," I said, sitting down and setting up the guitar.

"Do you just want me to listen or do you want it to be a lesson?" Lysander asked.

"Lesson."

"Okay, show me what you got then,” he said with a grin.

I played him the songs I was best at, but Lysander quickly redirected me to the songs I was struggling with. We passed the guitar back and forth a few times so he could demonstrate what he was talking about. It took me a few tries, but my playing was a lot smoother once I incorporated his tips.

"You're doing really well," Lysander said with a smile before playing a quick lick on the guitar. "You've made a lot of ground as a newbie."

"You are really good at guitar," Mom said, staring down at the instrument with her hand against her cheek. "You really only play for fun?"

"Yeah," he said. "I mean I don't have any assignments or whatever for playing it so it's, you know, chill."

Mom slowly shook her head. "How good are you at violin if that's what you take seriously?"

Lysander pressed his lips together. "Not good enough. Here."

He passed the guitar back to me, and I settled it on my lap.

"I promised my friends I'd meet them for dinner so I've got to head out," Lysander said, getting to his feet.

"Alright, it was nice to meet you," Mom said, standing as well. "We plan on heading out to camp after lunch tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll definitely be back by then," he said.

I set my guitar aside to follow Lysander to the door as he went to put his boots and coat on.

"Oh, almost forgot, here," he said, pulling a wrapped gift out of one of his coat pockets. "This is for you."

I ripped it open. It was a set of CDs.

"Not all guitar focused this time, just a few classics," he said with a smile. "Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac, Abba."

"Quite the range there," Mom said.

"Yeah, gotta keep it interesting," Lysander said.

"Thanks," I said, smiling up at him. "I already sent your gift out or else I'd give it to you."

"That's fine. I'll get it when I get back," he said, ruffling my hair again.

I gave him a hug even though he still smelled like cigarette smoke.

"See you tomorrow," he said before heading out.

"I like him," Mom said. "I hope he gets a nice break while he's here."

"Yeah," I said. "Is it cool if I play these while I pack?"

"Sure, I'm gonna make some more cookies for Annabeth and Will, okay?"

"Okay," I said, already heading for my CD player. I put on the first CD and packed my things before heading over to the kitchen to help Mom by eating the leftover dough in the bowl.

"You didn't leave any for me," Mom complained.

"Yes, I did," I said then held out the spoon she'd used to stir it.

She rolled her eyes before taking the spoon from me.

Lysander showed up the next day right after we finished eating.

"Uh, what's with the giant box?" he asked, pointing to the bin from the flea market.

"Darryl's present," I said, lifting up the lid. "I told her I'd leave it at cabin six for her."

"How much yarn is this?" he asked, digging through it briefly before pulling his hand out and letting me close it up again. "How the hell did you swing that?"

"Flea market," I said with a grin.

He shook his head, but he was smiling. "You're trying to replace me as Darryl's favorite."

"Well, I know she does all the yarn stuff so I figured it would be a safe bet, and she could leave it to the cabin if she really didn't like it," I said.

"No, she'll love it. She spends all winter knitting and crocheting so I always get her whatever yarn she wants," he said, then pulled his coat open to show more of what he was wearing underneath. "She made me this sweater with some of it."

Look, I barely spent any time in the Arts and Crafts Center, but I've had to sit through Annabeth fingerlooping which only made laces, not a whole sweater. Lysander's was far from simple. It had a washed out gray background which made the fair isle pattern even more vibrant as it shifted from salmon pink at the hip up to daffodil yellow at the neck like a sunset painted over his chest. Lysander looked pretty safe as Darryl's favorite.

"It's beautiful," Mom said.

"Isn't it?" Lysander said, grinning brightly. "It's like the nicest thing I own."

Mom smiled knowingly and moved to pick up the bin.

"Oh, no, I can carry that," Lysander said, reaching out. "It's the least I can do if you're gonna drive me all the way out to camp and back."

"Alright," Mom said, backing off. She grabbed two of the gallon ziplock bags she’s prepared instead. I grabbed the third one.

Lysander picked up the bin and said, "Lead the way."

We headed down to the underground parking garage. Lysander put the bin in the trunk and got in the front passenger seat of the car.

"Sorry for stealing your spot," Lysander said.

"It's fine," I told him, but I did sit behind Mom as Lysander had shifted the seat all the way back to fit his legs in.

"No music until I'm out of the worst of the traffic please," Mom said as she started pulling out.

"Yeah no problem," Lysander said.

I was used to Mom needing quiet while she dealt with traffic and watched the other cars as we drove. It was definitely worse than normal because of all the tourist after Christmas and with New Year’s coming up. I tried to count how many out of town license plates I could spot.

"Okay," Mom said as traffic eased. "We can do music. Oh, he's asleep."

I looked over to Lysander. He was completely passed out in the passenger seat, head tilted back awkwardly against the head rest.

"Poor kid," Mom said quietly. "He must be so exhausted."

"He wasn't like this in the summer," I told her.

"I'm sure he wasn't," she said. "He wasn't in school then, but you were like this last Christmas, too."

"I was?" I asked.

"You practically fell asleep if I left you alone for five minutes," she said then sighed. "Could I ask you something?"

“What?”

"Darryl and Lysander, what’s going on there?” she asked.

“They’re friends.”

“Yes, but, are they dating at all or anything? Is that like allowed?”

"Yeah, there's no chance of inbreeding on our godly side. One of Lysander's sisters is dating a son of the war god so same deal as him and Darryl," I said. "But I don't know that they're dating."

"They're not?" she asked. "But she made him such a beautiful sweater."

"I know," I said. "They seemed like just friends to me, but..."

"But?" she asked.

"I saw them together when everyone was leaving camp," I said. "They weren't like kissing or anything, but they were like standing super close together.”

Mom hummed. "Darryl, you like her right? She's nice?"

"Yeah, Darryl's the best. She made me that shark keychain. She's like basically why my reading's so good now," I said. Then I added, "Darryl said she was going to be a lawyer."

"Oh," Mom said, light and surprised. Then after a moment she said, "Oh, no."

"What?"

"She wants to be a lawyer, and he wants to be a concertmaster for the New York Philharmonic," she said. "Even if she ends up studying in New York, that's a lot of intense work and long hours for both of them."

"Can't they just work out their schedule?" I asked. "Some time is better than no time, right?"

"It's not always that simple," she said with a sigh. "Is some time better than no time if every time you're together you're always exhausted, and you want more than what you're able to give each other?"

"Maybe," I said, but I wouldn't want to ever show up to a date and fall asleep in the middle because I was working too hard for something I really cared about. I'd have to spend the whole time after apologizing to them.

We were quiet the rest of the way to camp to let Lysander sleep. I half expected him to start snoring because Gabe always snored any time he napped, but Lysander never did. I was ready to burst by the time we got to camp. I had way too much energy after sitting quietly for so long.

As soon as I unbuckled, I wrapped my arms around Lysander and shouted, "Wake up! We're here!"

Lysander jumped. "What the fuck?" he croaked.

"Percy," Mom scolded. "You didn't need to startle him like that. That's not very nice. You should apologize to him."

My entire face burned. I couldn't go hide out in my room when we were parked on the side of the road outside camp. "Sorry," I mumbled to Lysander.

"It's okay," he said, putting a hand over the arm I still had around him. "I've been woken up worse. Wait, are we here already?"

"Yeah, you were asleep the whole time," I told him.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to fall asleep," he said.

"It's okay."

"Gonna let me up?" he asked, giving my arm a pat.

"Sure," I said, letting him go.

We got out of the car. Lysander picked up the bin of yarn, and I grabbed my bag and the cookies, and Mom took the other two ziplocks. We made out way up the hill.

The valley was snow covered which was bizarre after a whole summer of perfect weather aside from Zeus's tantrums. There were blinking lights hanging from the eaves of all the cabins as well as the Big House. The whole scene belonged on a postcard.

"They're here!" Annabeth shouted.

It took me a second to spot her running up towards us from the Big House. She didn't have on a camp t-shirt and shorts like she had worn in the summer. Instead, she had on a black winter coat, jeans, and tall boots. A smaller figure came out behind her in a gold winter coat. They both slowed down as they reached the incline.

"Lysander?" Annabeth asked as she finally looked up. "What are you doing here?"

Will's head popped up behind her.

"I dropped by Percy while I was in New York and him and his mom offered me a ride," he said.

Will started running up the hill, passing Annabeth. "Lysander!"

"Will!" Lysander called back, setting down the bin of yarn. "Oh, my gods."

Will stopped in front of us. He looked like a large gold marshmallow with his puffy jacket. Even his white winter hat had a little puffball on the top with sparkly gold strands in it. His cheeks were rosy red from the cold and running.

He slumped and dropped his head with a sigh. "Just get it over with. Mom and Dad already did it."

"You're so cute," Lysander said, gathering Will up in a hug. "And so squishy."

Then Lysander stood up, lifting Will off his feet.

"Hey!" Will complained, wriggling in his hold.

"Alright, alright," Lysander said, setting him down. "You saw Dad?"

Will nodded as he righted his hat. "On the solstice."

"How was he?" Lysander asked.

"Good," Will answered. "But he said he might have to eat me cause I looked like a marshmallow."

I put a hand over my mouth to try not to laugh. It was horrible given who our grandfather was, but Apollo wasn’t wrong.

"Hey," Annabeth said as she reached us. "We made hot chocolate for everyone."

"But my mom," I said, gesturing to her and her two gallon bags worth of cookies.

"She can come in for a little bit if we invite her," Annabeth said. "That's what we did for Will's mom."

"I can?" Mom asked.

Annabeth nodded. "We're not allowed to advertise it. It's a safety measure."

"I understand," Mom said. "What do I need to do?"

"Nothing," Annabeth said. "I just have to say: I, Annabeth Chase, give Sally Jackson permission to enter camp."

"Welcome to camp," Will said cheerfully.

Mom carefully stepped over the border. Nothing happened. She was just standing inside the camp. I joined her.

"What's with the bin?" Annabeth asked, pointing to it.

"It's Percy's Christmas gift for Darryl," Lysander explained as he picked it up.

"It is?" she asked, looking over to me.

"I found a bunch of yarn for sale at a flea market," I told her as we started heading down the hill.

"And you didn't get any for me?" she asked, offended.

"You knit?" I asked. "I thought you just did fingerloop and sewing. I didn't find any thread so I got you something else."

"I knit," she said quickly. "Not as good as Darryl, but I will. I'm working on it."

"Okay, well, I can get you yarn next year if you want it," I said.

"Thread’s good, too," she said.

"Okay, then I'll get it if I find any."

Will's feet slid out from under him near the bottom of the hill. He landed with a soft thud.

"Oh, no," Mom said, moving towards him, but her hands were full of cookies.

"I got it," I said, pulling Will up to his feet. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," he said, adjusting his hat again. "The jacket gives me a lot of cushion."

"Yeah, it does."

"You need better shoes," Lysander said.

I looked down at Will's feet. He had on converse, not boots. "Aren't you cold?"

He shook his head. "I'm fine."

Lysander sighed, but he didn't comment further.

Once we got closer, I could see that the lights on the Big House weren’t actually winking Christmas lights strung all over the place, but little balls of fires. Annabeth went ahead of us to open the door to the Big House. The scent of chocolate wafted out from the kitchen. We all took off our coats and boots, lining them up with the scatter of other shoes. I lead the way and found a group of people sat around the kitchen table. Chiron was in his wheelchair, the Stoll brothers, both sons of Hermes, were there as well as Silena, who was unclaimed, and Rowan, the youngest Aphrodite camper.

"Beckendorf," I said. "I thought you weren't a year rounder."

"This is my first year," he said. "I only left to spend a couple weeks with my mom. She wants me here to be safe."

"Oh," I said awkwardly. "I didn't bring you a gift or anything."

He shrugged. "I don't really do Christmas anymore."

"What about cookies, do you do those?" I asked, holding up my bag of Mom's cookies.

He grinned. "I definitely do cookies."

"Welcome, Percy," Chiron said, carefully maneuvering behind other people's chairs. "And welcome to you as well, Ms. Jackson. Where did you find young Lysander?"

"They didn't find me," Lysander said as he set the bin down. "Percy gave me his address so I stopped by when I was visiting friends in New York."

Will pouted at Lysander. "You weren't coming to see me?"

"I didn't know if I could get to camp," Lysander said, "but Percy's mom offered me a ride."

Will turned to my mom. "Thank you, Ms. Jackson."

"You're welcome," she told him. "You're so sweet."

"Don't trust him," Lysander teased. "He charms all the moms."

"I do not," Will complained.

Lysander only ruffled his hair rather than taking it back.

"I can get mugs for everyone," Silena said, getting up from the table as she was closest to the stove.

"Thank you, Silena," Chiron said.

"Got any plates for cookies?" I asked.

"I got it," Beckendorf said, getting up and grabbing plates from a cabinet.

Silena didn't add hot chocolate packets to hot water. Instead, she used a soup ladle to pour hot chocolate from a big pot into mugs. Each one was a different size, shape, and color. I made sure to snag the blue one when Silena brought them back to the table. I passed the purple along to my mom and the red to Lysander.

"Thanks," we all told Silena.

"You're welcome," she said with a smile, going back to her seat next to Rowan.

We set the ziplock bags of cookies out on the table, and people took what they wanted. Annabeth sat beside me and my mom, and Will sat next to Lysander. Conversations kind of split off from there. I had to explain to Mom who everyone was and who their parents were.

“You got Silena wrong,” Annabeth said.

“I did? She got claimed?” I asked.

She nodded. “Not too long after everyone left. Her mom is the goddess of love.”

“Oh, good for her,” I said.

Annabeth nodded.

“What have you guys been covering for school?” Mom asked which set Annabeth off talking about all the details of what Chiron had been teaching them.

When Mom finished her mug of hot chocolate, she checked her watch and frowned. "Lysander, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he said, quickly getting to his feet.

"You're not staying?" Will asked.

"I can't. I'm sorry. I already made plans," he said.

"Oh," he said, his voice small.

"You gonna come see me off?" Lysander asked.

Will nodded, sliding off the chair.

"It was good to see you both," Chiron said as he saw us to the front door. "Have a safe trip back."

"Thank you," Mom said before getting her boots and coat on.

"See ya, Chiron," Lysander said, finishing buttoning up.

Poor Will looked miserable as he walked with Lysander, Mom, and me back up the hill.

"I'll miss you," Will said to Lysander when we reached the pine tree.

"Oh, I'll miss you, too," Lysander said, gathering Will up in another hug, and Will buried his face in his neck just like last summer. "I'll see you soon, promise."

"Okay," Will said as he pulled away.

Lysander moved to me next. He hugged me, too.

"Good luck with the rest of the school year," he said before pulling away. 

"You too," I told him.

He grinned. "I'll be fine," he said.

"I'll be back Sunday evening," Mom told me before giving me a half hug. "Be good, okay?"

"I will," I promised. I might even be able to get away with it this time.

Will and I waited at the top of the hill until Mom and Lysander were both safely in the car and driving back to the city.

"You want your gift?" I asked.

"Sure," Will said, but his cheer sounded forced.

"Alright,” I said. “Let’s go back and grab it then.”

I led the way back down to the Big House.

Chapter Text

I returned to the Big House to get my bag and Darryl's gift with Will following after me. Annabeth helped me carry the bin over to cabin six even though I could carry it myself. Once we had it safely tucked away in a corner of cabin six, I pulled my gifts for them out.

Annabeth broke the tape on the wrapping then pulled the book free. "Oh," she said as she opened it up.

I nearly asked her if it was a good ‘oh’ or a bad one, but she was legitimately reading it so I figured it was good.

Will ripped the wrapping paper off his book. He squinted at the title then he held it up with a bright grin. "We match!"

"Yeah, exactly," I said.

"Can we play now?"

"Sure."

"Let's go," he said, grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the exit.

"Annabeth?" I asked.

"Hm?" she asked, not looking up from the book.

"Annabeth," I said louder.

She looked up. "I'm coming."

Will dragged me over to the music room at the back of cabin seven, and Annabeth trailed behind us.

"Am I crazy or is it warmer in here?" I asked.

"No, we need to keep it temperature controlled for the instruments," Will said then shot a dirty look at Annabeth. "She's just crazy keeping it so cold in her cabin."

"Am not," Annabeth said. "It's proven you sleep better when it's cold."

"Not that cold," Will argued, rolling his eyes.

"I didn't bring mine so which guitar can I borrow?" I asked before they could start arguing.

"Let me check," Will said, heading for the shelves. After a few moments, he pulled out a guitar case from the shelf. "Try this."

I took the guitar out of its case and gave it a few test strums. "Yeah, this works. You gonna be good, Annabeth?"

She didn't answer, and I turned to look at her. The music room had one small love seat shoved in the back with blankets draped all over it, and Annabeth was curled up in the corner with one of the blankets pulled over her lap, reading her Christmas gift.

"I think she's covered," I said as I faced Will. "What do you want to play?"

“Let’s start from the beginning,” he said, but I hadn’t checked how the songs were ordered in the Rolling Stones book. Probably not by difficulty though.

"Sure," I said as Will set up the book before grabbing his own guitar.

Thankfully, he didn’t pick the literal first song and instead one of the easier ones to start off with. Playing with Will wasn't the same as playing with Claire. Maybe some of it was playing the Stones rather than the Strokes, but he just picked things up quick. I taught him the basics of fingerstyle and by dinner time, he was probably on par with Claire.

"Annabeth," I called as we put our guitars on stands.

She didn't respond, still reading her book.

I sighed and walked over to her. I stuck my hand over the pages and wiggled my fingers, making her jump. "Dinner time."

"What?" she asked then her stomach grumbled.

Will giggled.

"Food," I told her.

"Oh, right," she said, taking a last glance before setting aside the book on the couch. "Let's go. You're making us late."

"We were waiting for you," I said.

We got our coats and boots back on then headed out to the pavilion. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be there out in the open and the snow. The large fire in the brazier warmed the entire place up. I still had to sit alone. Annabeth, Will, and Beckendorf also had to sit on their own even when Mr. D got Chiron and the few nymphs that didn't go dormant in the winter.

Will still went up last to make his offering to Apollo. When he turned away from the flames, I waved him over. He glanced over to Mr. D then shook his head at me. I gave him an unimpressed look because Apollo had told his kids not to listen to Mr. D, and I was triply sure he didn't change his mind after the scorpion incident.

Will glanced over to Mr. D again then darted for my table. He slid into a spot next to me.

I glanced over to table six. Annabeth was already watching us with narrowed eyes. I motioned her over as well. I could see her sigh, but she got up with her plate and sat down across from me and Will. I turned towards table nine, but Beckendorf wasn't there.

"Where's—,"

There was a click of a plate being set down on the table. I swiveled back around to see Beckendorf sitting down beside Annabeth.

"Hey," he said.

Will giggled, hiding his mouth behind both his hands to muffle it.

"What do you think you're doing, Peter Johnson?" Mr. D asked.

Will went silent.

"I think I'm eating dinner," I told him, taking a forkful of food and shoving it into my mouth.

"You know the rules," he said. "Every child sits at their own parent's table."

"Really?" I asked. "Then why do I remember your sons sitting with me?"

"Percy," Annabeth hissed at me.

Mr. D's eyes flared purple before returning to a more natural color. "I gave them permission, of course, which is my purview as camp director. These children do not have it."

"This camp is Phoebus's even if you're director for the moment," I said. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind his son sitting with his friends even if it's not at his table."

"Percy," Annabeth whispered urgently again, and Beckendorf shook his head.

"You presume to know my brother's mind?" Mr. D asked. "Tread carefully, Jackson. I did not originate the rules for the seating and the cabins."

"I'm not saying he didn't have a reason for them. I think it's a good idea to get siblings to meet and get to know one another in the summer, but it's not nice to force kids to sit alone in winter," I said.

Annabeth put her hand over her forehead and slumped down in her seat.

"The rules are the rules. You wouldn't want to offend any of these children's parents," he said, glowering at me.

"I would offend them by making sure their kid has a nicer time at camp? We can rotate tables if they care so much about a table over their kid being lonely."

"Percy," Annabeth mumbled, lifting her hand just enough to try and plead at me with her eyes.

Mr. D rose from his seat to stare all of us down. "Return to your own tables immediately."

"No," I said, putting my hand on Will's shoulder when he started to get up. "If you really think your brother would be offended by his son sitting with me at my father's table at my invitation and prefer he sit alone, prove it. Ask him."

Mr. D practically snarled. "You dare order a god—,"

"So you don't think he'd be offended? That's why you won't ask him?" I asked. My heart pounded in my chest.

"I shall smite you where you stand, boy," Mr. D spat.

"I think we all already know how Apollo feels about you neglecting the hospitality you owe us on his behalf," I said.

It was winter in New York. Daylight had been gone for over an hour by dinner time. Still, all the fires around the pavilion flared brighter.

Mr. D shot a withering look at the flames. He turned and stalked away from the pavilion and back to the Big House.

"What the fuck," Beckendorf said, sounding like he was wheezing. "I thought you were going to get us killed."

"What were you thinking?" Annabeth asked, her voice still subdued as she checked over her shoulder for Mr. D. "That was so stupid."

Will shoved his plate forward then set his head on the table, cushioned by his arms in his puffy jacket sleeves.

"I was thinking we should be allowed to sit together," I said, letting go of Will's shoulder. "It's not fair to make you all sit alone all year especially after Mr. D let Castor and Pollux sit with me. It's messed up."

"I know, but was that really the way to handle it?" Annabeth asked. She turned back towards me looking pale. "You used Phoebus against his brother. You shouldn't do that, and definitely don't rely on it. That's how Hector got killed, you know."

I gave her a skeptical look. "I'm having dinner, not defending the walls of Troy."

"You goaded a god," Beckendorf pointed out.

I shrugged.

"Okay, stabbing the god of war once doesn't mean you can do whatever you want," Annabeth said. "Can you try not to get smited for one weekend?"

"He stabbed the god of war?" Beckendorf. "Nobody told me that."

"I had to to get the bolt back," I said. "I wouldn't do it if the rules weren’t stupid or if anyone had actually talked to each other last summer.”

"I don't feel good," Will mumbled.

"What's wrong?" I asked, turning towards him to rub his back. He couldn't be injured since I'd been with him all afternoon.

"Dad sent me here because he thought Mom wasn't good enough. I don't want to have to go somewhere else if Mr. D isn't good enough," he mumbled through his jacket.

"I'm sure he won't do that," I said. "It's your dad's camp. If Mr. D isn't good enough, he should be the one to leave, not you."

"Good luck with that," Beckendorf said. "His punishment is from the king himself."

"It's a stupid punishment if all it does is make everyone mad," I said.

"Yeah, we know, just don't go saying it straight to the king's face, please," Annabeth said. "It would be nice if you didn't die."

I rolled my eyes. Someone should tell Zeus his punishments were stupid.

"You're lucky your dad's his brother," Beckendorf said, shaking his head and starting to eat.

"What's that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Easier to punish your kid than your older brother," he said with a shrug.

“Feel like Promachos showed otherwise, but whatever.”

I managed to coax Will into eating his dinner.

Afterwards, Annabeth and Will grabbed their gifts for me and brought them over to the music room where Beckendorf and I waited. Annabeth’s was wrapped in brown paper. I ripped it open to reveal a pair of laces with a chevron pattern in blue and green.

“I made them myself,” she said. “You can use them on whatever shoes you want.”

“Thanks.”

“Now mine,” Will said, shoving a Christmas bag at me.

“Okay, I’ll do yours,” I said.

I first pulled out a plain black capo which would let me raise the pitch of my guitar. The second gift was a guitar strap. It was definitely nicer than the capo, and as I ran my hand over the black leather, I felt an engraving. I tilted it towards the light. There was a stylized sun on the end. Maybe I just shouldn’t ask where Will got the strap from.

“Thanks, man,” I said. “I’ll definitely use them.”

Will puffed up in pride.

“Ready to play some more?” I asked, putting the gifts carefully away in my bag.

“Yes, let’s go,” Will said, hurrying to get his guitar.

 Annabeth went back to her book, but Beckendorf chilled out and just listened to us practice.

“Hey, could I ask you something?” I asked Beckendorf when we’d finished for the night and were headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I know I didn’t get you a Christmas gift or anything, but would you be able to make a phiale?” I asked.

“You want a phiale?” he asked as we entered the bathrooms.

Will went on ahead of us since he’d brought all his shower gear.

“Well, it’s really not a good idea to set things on fire in an apartment so I gotta have another option and I don’t have any ground access either so…phiale,” I answered as we hung up our coats, the sound of the shower filling the room.

“Yeah, sure, I guess,” he said with a shrug. “Never been asked to make one before so I guess we’ll find out how it goes. What do you want on it?”

“I don’t know. Does that matter?”

“No idea, but I can put a shark on it,” he said with a grin.

“No, Beckendorf, come on, please,” I said as I unzipped my hoodie since the bathroom was surprisingly warm. “It’s a dumb nickname.”

“Is that why you’re wearing your birthday gift from Annabeth and Darryl?” he asked.

I glanced down at my chest. I’d put the shirt they’d made me on over a one of my black long sleeve shirts because it was too big still to wear on its own. “It’s different,” I said.

“How so?”

“The shirt’s for me so it’s fine if it’s just a nickname. The phiale is technically for my dad and sometimes the Muses.”

Beckendorf raised his eyebrows. “It’s sometimes for the Muses?”

“Well, yeah, my mom’s writing a book so sometimes she does libations for all of the Muses because apparently they all cover books,” I said then hung up my hoodie next to my coat.

“And you don’t do any for Phoebus?” he asked as he led the way over to the sinks.

“No,” I said. “Okay, technically I did it one time to ask him a question, but other than that, no.”

“What do you need to ask Phoebus about when you’re not on a quest?” he asked. “Wait, did a monster break that trap we made you? You should have told me that first so I could fix it.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said then I frowned. “Actually, I haven’t had any monsters come near me at all since I went home.”

Beckendorf looked to the side then back to me. “None? At all?”

“That’s weird, right?”

He nodded. “Very. I’m not even Big Three, and I don’t get zero monsters outside of camp.”

“Do you think I’m cursed?” I asked him.

“Why would being cursed mean you get no monsters?” he asked.

“Because if there’s no monsters now maybe that means all the monsters later,” I said. “Like a curse to build up all the monsters or get me while I’m not expecting it.”

“I don’t think it’s that, but it’s something alright,” he said.

“Are you guys just going to talk all night?” Will asked.

He was dressed in his pjs and shower shoes and rubbing a towel over his head.

I winced. “Please don’t do that to your hair.”

“Do what?” he asked.

Beckendorf just shook his head and passed Will to head for the toilets

“You’ll mess up your hair if you rub it like that with a towel,” I told him. “It’s what I used to do.”

“You mean when your hair was all fluffy?” he asked, pausing his hands.

“Yeah, using the towel like that made it all frizzy,” I said.

“Is that why my hair’s so fluffy?” he asked.

“Probably.”

He dropped his head, pulling the towel away. “Why didn’t anybody ever tell me?”

“Well,” I stalled.

Will picked his head up and narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.

“You didn’t seem to want anyone messing with your hair so Lysander was just going to tell you when you wanted to start putting effort into it,” I explained.

“Oh,” he said, drooping slightly.

“Yeah,” I said awkwardly.

I quickly put toothpaste on my toothbrush so as to not talk. He kept staring at me as I brushed my teeth no matter how many looks I gave him. It definitely made finishing my night time routine a little difficult.

“Can you tell me how to do my hair?” Will finally asked when we were heading out of the bathroom. “I want it to look like yours and Dad’s.”

“Huh?” I asked.

Apollo was so blond I hadn’t even considered that we had pretty similar hair texture.

“Sure, I guess,” I said. “But tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Will agreed. “Goodnight, Percy.”

“Goodnight,” I told him before heading off towards cabin three.

I did not account for the fact that it would be completely freezing inside. I stole all the blankets off the other beds to put on my own since I had no idea if there was any heating or how to turn it on. Annabeth’s fun fact about the cold was completely wrong since I practically spent the whole night shivering.

I woke up to a little package on my nightstand. I picked it up. Someone had written on it in ancient Greek.

To Perseus

-Poseidon

I carefully unwrapped the package. There was a plain box inside. I opened it up.

It took me a second to recognize what I was looking at. The great white shark tooth had been carved into a wave pattern which extended into the silver that covered the tooth’s root. I picked it up and a silver chain trailed behind it. Had someone told him about the baby shark nickname or was this just a totally normal gift to give underwater.

I put it on, and it comfortably rested below my camp necklace. I made sure to thank my father before breakfast.

“Can I live here?” I asked when I met up with Will at cabin seven after breakfast with all my hair products.

“I mean maybe. Have you asked Dad?” he asked. He wore the slightest of little smirks.

“You’re so funny,” I told him, rolling my eyes. “Cabin three is cold which was kinda nice in the summer, but it’s awful in winter.”

Will frowned. “I’m pretty sure all the cabins have heating.”

“I wasn’t about to try and find it in the dark,” I said, dropping down onto the couch.

“What first?” Will asked, sitting next to me.

“I’m just gonna explain everything,” I said. I walked him through my routine and what all the products did, and for whatever reason, Will had to open up and smell everything.

“Hm,” he said.

“Hm what?” I asked.

“It seems like a lot of work,” he said.

“Think that’s why Lysander didn’t want to tell you, but hey, you’re not supposed to wash it every day. And it gets easier,” I said then shrugged. “My hair tangles way less now so I don’t have to spend so much time on that.”

“That’s good,” he said, self consciously toying with the damaged ends of his hair.

“You can cut it short if you really don’t want to deal with it,” I told him.

“No, I wanna grow it out,” he said. “Sammy and Aislinn both have long hair.”

“Alright then we can figure out how to do the form thing before I leave so you have your own stuff,” I said.

He frowned.

“What?”

“I don’t like the smell,” he said. “Mine smells like coconut.”

“Okay,” I said. “I don’t know anything that smells like coconut, but I could find some, ship them out to you or something.”

“Really?” Will asked.

“Sure, can’t hurt to check,” I said with a shrug.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Yeah, no problem,” I told him.

I put my stuff back in my cabin, and Will showed me how to turn on the heat. It made really creaky noises and smelled a little like something was burning, but hopefully the whole made out of stone thing would keep it from all burning down.

We spent the rest of the day out in the snow with Annabeth. I asked Beckendorf to join in, but he said he hated the cold and wanted to work on my phiale instead. I didn’t bother asking cabin five. No one from cabin ten wanted to join, but the Stoll brothers came out and helped.

First, we made a whole army of snowmen and snowwomen because Annabeth said they couldn’t all be boys. They didn’t look different in any way because they all were made out of three balls of snow and stick arms and nothing else, but she insisted hers were all women. The Stolls kept making weird caterpillar monstrosity snowmen. Will kept sliding around all over the place, cushioned by his puffy coat whenever he fell down.

After the fourth or fifth time, I hauled up and told him, “You need to get some boots. Your dad’ll kill us if you crack your head open on some rock hidden under the snow.”

“I’m fine,” he said, trying to wave me off. “I know how to walk.”

“Yeah, you’re doing a great job of it,” I said. “Seriously, why aren’t you wearing any boots? Aren’t your feet freezing? My toes are cold just looking at you.”

“My feet are fine,” he said, stamping one foot like that was proof. “I like feeling the ground.”

Yeah, that actually tracked with how many times I’d seen Will running around barefoot last summer.

“Well, you’re feeling it a little too much. You’re not gonna go floating off into space from wearing boots with proper treads so you’re not ice skating on the snow,” I told him.

“I’m pretty sure he has boots,” Annabeth said as she rolled the middle ball onto her latest snowwoman. “He just refuses to wear them.”

“Are you serious?” I asked, turning back towards Will. “You have perfectly good boots and you don’t wear them? Good boots cost a lot of money, and you’re wasting them.”

Will mumbled something into his collar.

“What?” I asked.

“My mom got me these,” he said louder.

I sighed. “Don’t you want them to last ‘til next year then? You’ll wear them out if you wear them all the time, especially all winter.”

He slumped down, tucking his face into the collar of his coat. “Okay.”

I walked with him back to cabin seven as he switched his shoes out for boots.

“Better?” I asked as we made our way back.

“I guess,” he said.

“You changed your socks, right?”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re as bad as Gordie.”

“Okay, geeze, sorry for not wanting you to get frostbite. I’ll let your toes freeze next time.”

Will smiled. “I’ll be fine. I can heal it.”

I was just gonna leave Will to have that conversation with Apollo on his own.

We got in a few more snowmen before lunchtime.

After that, I decided to check in on the lake which wasn’t totally frozen over. The swans were still there for the winter, and I kept clear of them as I carefully slid my way across the ice to the water. I tested the temperature with my hand. I couldn’t drown, but I wasn’t too sure how I’d hold up to the cold. It wasn’t as bad as I’d expected it to be, no worse than the air at least, so I slowly lowered myself in.

The naiads were all huddled together at the bottom, but not hibernating or anything like that. I waved to them, and they waved back lethargically.

“You’re all doing okay?” I asked them.

“We’re fine,” one of them told me. “Just really tired in winter.”

She then yawned.

“I’ll just leave you be then,” I said.

“Bye,” a few of them called as I swam back up to the surface.

I headed to the stables after. The horses were all excited to see me, begging for my attention. I ended up having to go around and pet all of them so they’d calm down and the two satyrs taking care of the barn for the afternoon would stop giving me dirty looks. I did give a little extra attention to Nancy.

It is good to see you well, my lord she told me.

“It’s good to see you, too,” I told her, rubbing her forehead.

Shall we ride today?

“Sorry, not today,” I told her. “But definitely in the summer.”

I shall wait patiently for it then, my lord

I grinned, giving her one last rub before heading out to rejoin the others.

A whole commotion was building up on the field as someone from cabin five had kicked over a snowman, and Will was shouting at them to fix it. Someone threw a snowball, and then it was an all out snowball fight between us and the cabin five kids. Chiron broke it up and sent us all off to find an indoor activity.

Will, Annabeth, and I went back to the music room behind cabin seven. We practiced more songs while Annabeth curled up with her book again.

Everyone was calm by the time we went to dinner. Will, Annabeth, and Beckendorf sat with me again. Mr. D sent us a dirty look, but he didn’t say anything.

Chiron let us stay up until midnight at the biggest bonfire we could make to ring in the New Year.

At the end of the night, I walked back to my now moderately warm cabin confident that the coming year would have to be better than the last.

Chapter Text

We didn’t have as much time in the morning since my mom was coming to pick me up after lunch. I spent some time packing up. I headed over to the forge to checkout the phiale Beckendorf was working on.

“Here it is,” he said, offering it out to me.

“Woah,” I said as I looked inside of it.

It was a bronze bowl a little larger than my hand if I tried to hold it with my thumb on the lip and my middle finger resting in the indentation that poked up in the center. Crashing ocean waves and running horses chased each other around the interior with a more basic repeated pattern around the rim.

“I engraved your name on it,” he said. “Just your first name though.”

I turned the bowl around. On the rim in ancient Greek, it read ‘Perseus son of Poseidon.’ “Great, now everyone will know who to return it to if I lose it.”

Beckendorf laughed. “I think they’d just get very confused.”

“Yeah, probably,” I said, pitying the imaginary classicist that found a phiale dedicated to a Perseus who wasn’t the son of Zeus. “Seriously, though, thank you. It looks amazing.”

“You’re welcome,” he told me.

I packed it carefully with the rest of my gifts.

I gave hugs goodbye to Will and Annabeth when my mom arrived. Beckendorf went in for a bro hug instead. Chiron wished me farewell and good luck for the rest of the school year. I showed Mom the phiale Beckendorf made once we crossed over the border on the way back to the car.

"It's beautiful," she said.

"Yeah, I think I'm still going to have to pour it out down the sink, but at least I have the right bowl for it," I said, turning it to catch the light on the images before returning it safely to my bag.

"You thanked him for making it for you, right?" she asked.

"Of course," I said. "I gotta come up with a make up gift. He said he doesn't do Christmas, but I think I should still do something."

"You can always say it's a birthday gift," she said as she unlocked the car.

"Yeah, I don't actually know when his is," I said, climbing into the front passenger seat. "I'd get him metals but he's already got everything he needs from camp."

"Well, you have time to think on it," she said as she buckled up.

"True," I said.

I spent the ride telling Mom about the weekend, and she told me she spent New Year's Eve watching old movies with popcorn and wrapped up in a giant blanket. She didn't even put on the ball drop or anything.

I unfortunately had to go back to school basically right away. The only thing I had time for was relacing my Vans with Annabeth’s gift since I didn’t want to mess them up putting them on my boots and exposing them to all the salt and other crap on winter city streets. Tyson was at the subway station before me like always on Monday morning. He definitely smelled worse off after so long away from school. I didn't ask him about his holidays. Hopefully, if he had something to say about how bad they were, he'd bring it up.

Things were better after we showered. Tyson’s smell had definitely improved, but he also looked cleaner.

"Ready for school?" I asked him.

"Uh huh," he said then grinned.

We went to Mrs Meredith's class early, and she gave us a smile before continuing to set up the room. Tyson and I started the day out with math like we normally did, and Miss Angela joined as after a few minutes.

"How was your guys's break?" she asked with a pretty smile.

"Good," I said before going right back to my work problems.

"Okay," Tyson said, but he said it so drearily it didn't sound like it actually was okay.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," she said, sympathetically.

"It's okay," he said then brightened up. "But now I have school again."

"It's so good to hear that you like being here," Miss Angela told him. "I wanted to ask you guys something now that we're back for the new year."

"Yeah?" Tyson asked.

"You spend a lot of time working on math, way more than the other kids," she said. "You spend the second most on science and social studies in about the same amount. Then you spend almost no time on English. Why is that?"

I ducked my head down.

"Percy doesn't like it," Tyson said. "He wants to read about the ocean, but there's no books."

"I never said that," I snapped.

Tyson shrank back from me, and I quickly ducked my head down again.

"There's no need to speak like that to Tyson, Percy. Tyson, in the future, could you please let Percy answer for himself?" she asked him.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Okay," Tyson told her with a nod.

"It's okay to have favorite and least favorite subjects, for most kids it's math that's their least favorite," Miss Angela said, her voice smooth and gentle. "But we want to make sure you still progress through the grand lessons."

"We're getting through it," I said, more to my worksheet than to Miss Angela.

"I know, but you've worked almost entirely on the poems and short stories," she said. "You haven't even finished Lord of the Flies which is the shortest of our books for this year."

"It's not interesting," I told her.

Miss Angela sighed, and I glanced up to see her tucking a loose lock of her hair behind her ear. "I know you have dyslexia, Percy, so I know it takes you longer to read things which is why I'm bringing this up sooner rather than later. I know you care about your writing and reading otherwise you wouldn't have put the effort into improving your handwriting. You've done well on the poem and short story assignments. I just want to understand why you won't even attempt the books."

"They're not any good," I mumbled, trying to focus on doing the next math problem, but it was a word problem. All the letters were jumbled up.

"Oh," she said. "I'm sorry they're not to your liking. Would you want to try a book that's not on the list?"

"Why would I want another book to deal with?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I care more that you read than you read what the New York state curriculum says you have to read."

"I do read," I said. "You just said I read all that stuff and did the assignments."

I tried to write down the important numbers from the word problem but I still couldn't read what any of them meant.

"Yes, but being able to read a full book is also an important skill," she said. "I would hate for you to miss out on all the wonderful stories out there."

"I don't have to read to get stories," I said, trying to erase what I'd written so far. "I can watch TV or a movie."

I ripped the page with my eraser. I huffed and grabbed a new copy of the worksheet.

"I know, and there's also value in those stories, but novels are a different medium. Reading is a different skill from watching a show," she said calmly. "Have you read any books at all that you like?"

I sighed, giving up on the word problem for the moment. "Does the Odyssey count? It's also poetry."

"You've read the Odyssey?" Miss Angela asked, staring at me. "Like a graphic novel version?"

I shook my head. "I read all twenty four books."

"Really?" she asked, looking mystified.

I nodded. "I read the Iliad, too, but I don't like Achilles. He's a—jerk."

I nearly called him a dick because that was really what he was, but Miss Angela was a teacher so I couldn't say that.

"Well, you'd know more than me," she said. "I've only seen Troy."

"The Brad Pitt movie?" I asked. I'd picked it for a movie night with my mom one time just to see what it was like, and it was so weird. "It doesn't even have any of the gods in it."

No gods had really warped the story, and Hector acting like he didn’t believe in gods at all was bonkers. The duel between Achilles and Hector was cool even though that's not how actual fighting works.

"Is that important to you?" Miss Angela asked.

I raised my eyebrow. "What is?"

"That the Greek gods are portrayed correctly?"

"They're in the story. How can you tell it right if they're not there?"

"I see," she said, nodding. "You really like Greek mythology?"

"Well, I don't know if like is the right word for it."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, frowning at me.

"Uh," I stalled. Why was it so much worse telling a teacher than telling Ellie? "Well, I'm pagan. Hellenistic, I mean.”

"Oh," she said in a weird tone. "And you decided that after reading the Iliad and the Odyssey?"

"No," I said. "My dad's Greek. I started taking the gods more seriously since last summer.”

"Me, too," Tyson added.

“What?” I asked him. “You started taking the gods more seriously last summer?”

He nodded then glanced over to Miss Anglea who looked completely lost.

"I prayed, and the earthshaker sent me here,” Tyson said.

"He did?" I asked, trying to figure out how that would have happened. "I thought Phoebus was in charge of education."

Tyson only nodded.

I was going to need to pray about this later.

"Wait, wait," Miss Angela said, holding up her hands. "Who's the earthshaker and Phoebus? I'm not that familiar with Greek myths."

I braced myself, "They're epithets. Earthshaker is for Poseidon, and Phoebus is for Apollo."

The overhead lights brightened for a moment then returned to normal.

"Oh, okay, I know them," Miss Angela said, looking less confused. She looked between me and Tyson then focused on just me. "Well, if you don't want to read more myths, what about verse novels?"

"Verse novels?" I asked.

"Yes, they're more like the Iliad and the Odyssey. They're stories but told with poetry rather than prose."

"Oh, I didn't know they did that," I said. "I guess I can try it."

"Great," she said with a smile. "I'll have to double check if we have the ones I'm thinking of. I might need to borrow them from another classroom."

"Okay," I said.

"I'll be back," she said, getting up to go talk to Mrs. Meredith.

I turned to Tyson. "So you believe in the gods?"

"Of course," he said with a nod.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"That you believe in the gods."

"Doesn't everybody?" Tyson asked.

I sighed. "No, not everybody does."

"Oh," he said, wringing his hands together.

It was nice to get a break from schoolwork in music class even though we were only a morning in. We'd started on a Pat Benatar song before break, and I was just going over a more difficult section with Claire rather than having to learn something totally new. I watched her play for a while. She didn't seem that into it, playing it slowly and not quite with the right rhythm.

"Do you not like Pat Benatar?" I asked. "We don't have to play her music if you don't like it."

Claire blinked then turned towards me. "Oh, it's fine."

"Well, you shouldn't be stuck playing stuff that's just fine," I said. "What do you actually like playing?"

She made a face, pressing her lips together and half turning her head away. "You won't like it."

"You don't know that if you won't tell me anything," I pointed out.

She slowly turned her head back towards me. "I think I like acoustic guitar better."

"Okay," I said. "Is sticking with rock okay? Because there are rock songs with acoustic guitar. I know Heart has acoustic, but I think a lot of them are really difficult to play. Or you could just play acoustic for the songs we're already doing it."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said with a shrug. "Why not?"

"Well," she said, dragging out the word. "You and Ellie are kind of intense about the whole band thing and listening to, like, cool music, not whatever’s on the radio.”

"Are we?” I asked. “I'm playing guitar for fun, and me and Ellie just happen to have similar tastes though I am gonna get her to like the Beatles eventually.”

She continued to insist the Beatles were lame and overrated, and she just smiled through any explanation I gave of their music and their contribution to rock. I’d even looked stuff up about them to have more ammo, and she still wouldn’t give it up.

"I'm playing guitar for fun. You're always serious about it, and you just plow through songs full throttle," she said, pushing her hand out straight. She dropped her arm with a sigh. "Joshua's good enough to keep up with you guys, but I'm just not like that."

I tried not to make a face.

"Yeah, see, you know what I'm talking about," she said, gesturing towards my head. "I'm behind."

"I'm not—that is—the band is for fun," I said. "I guess I just got a little used to my cousins. They're so good, and I want to be that good."

"Cousins or cousins' kid?" she asked, but without much humor.

"Kids," I admitted.

She nodded.

"Just switch to acoustic, and we'll see if it gets better," I told her.

She sighed. "I'll do it, but I don't think this'll work out."

"Oh," I said.

"Let's just do the song," she said, turning back to the music.

We practiced for the rest of the period, but it was definitely awkward.

I left the music room for Spanish when someone bumped into my shoulder. I turned to tell them off, but it was only Ellie looking at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked, bumping my shoulder into hers.

"Wanna tell me why Claire ditched me and ran off for French class?" she asked me. "You were with her the whole period so what gives?"

I sighed. "She thinks we're too intense."

"Too intense about what?"

"The music."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "All we do is practice to the songs we're learning. We're not even playing half the time we're in the room together. Mr. Nick always has to come in and tell us to get back on task."

"I know, but she listens to pop music, doesn't like electric guitar that much, and she can't keep up with us," I told her.

Ellie gave me a confused look. "It's not my fault she doesn't like electric, the drum kit's new to me, too. I don't know anything about guitar, but she sounds fine to me."

I shook my head. "She sounds fine once she learns the music, but she takes longer to do that than everyone else."

"So?" she asked. "What does it matter so long as she does learn it in the end?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but she's clearly not having that much fun."

"Like, what, you think she's gonna quit or something?" Ellie asked.

We stopped in the hallway. Ellie had to go the other way to get to French class than I had to go to get to Spanish.

"I don't know," I said with a sigh.

Ellie looked like she was about to cry, blinking rapidly and frowning deeply.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, it's stupid," she snapped, turned around, and walked away quickly.

"But I was just," I sighed as she got too far away to hear me. "Never mind then."

The bell rung.

"Shit," I said and sprinted to Spanish. I slowed down at the door, trying to quietly get to my seat before Mrs. Linda turned around.

"Percy," she said. "That's a warning for tardiness. You have enough time to get through the halls."

"Yes, ma’am," I said, taking my usual seat next to Tyson.

A few minutes into class, Tyson carefully shifted a piece of paper onto my desk. “Present,” he whispered to me.

I pulled it closer. It was a still life drawing of a conch shell done in pencil. It was way better than Tyson’s handwriting would have suggested. “Thanks.”

Tyson grinned.

At least someone was having a good start to the second half of the school year. I put the drawing away carefully away in my bag.

Ellie caught up to me and Tyson as we were leaving school grounds that afternoon. "Hey, tell the guys I'm gonna miss today. I'll see them tomorrow, okay?"

"Uh, okay," I said. We couldn't skate with the snow, but we tended to hang out at the park after school anyways. Danny, Tyler, and Ben pretty blatantly used it as an excuse to not start on their homework.

"Thanks," she told me, offering me a smile before running off.

"Bye," Tyson said, waving to her.

Ellie crossed the street to meet up with Claire who was waiting for her. Claire caught me looking and waved. I waved back. The two girls walked together away from the skatepark.

I sighed and headed to meet up with the guys.

"Where's Ellie?" Ben asked as we cleared off benches to sit.

"She's hanging with Claire," I said as I sat down. Tyson sat beside me which was great for blocking the wind.

"That's the other girl in your band, right?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah."

Everyone was quiet, and it was definitely awkward. The guys were still more Ellie's friends than mine.

"Soooo," Danny said. "What kind of music do you guys play?"

"We started with the Strokes," I said. "But now we're doing Pat Benatar."

"Lame," Tyler said.

"Shut up," I told him. "I don't like all of her songs, but she's got pipes, and she wrote a song against child abuse. If you've only listened to her pop-y stuff, you're missing out."

Danny and Ben both started giggling.

"Damn, he schooled you," Ben said.

"Whatever," Tyler said.

"Not whatever," I said. "Don't talk shit if you don't know your stuff."

Danny and Ben giggled again.

"Fine, okay," Tyler said. "I just don't listen to that stuff. I like, like, blink-182, Sum 41, newer bands."

"Do they have to have numbers in their name for you to like them?" I asked.

Danny and Ben laughed.

"Shut up," Tyler told them. "I like Offspring and Green Day, too."

"Well, I don't think I've heard much of any of them," I said.

"Dude," all three of them complained.

Tyler said "You talk shit about me—,"

"I didn't say they were lame. I said I didn't know them," I said. "It's different."

"Tomato tahmahtoh," he said, waving me off. "Clearly we need to educate you."

"Oh, this'll be good," I said, somewhat sarcastically.

We did manage to kill about an hour going back and forth on different bands. Danny was a ZZ Top fan, and Ben said Lynyrd Skynyrd was probably racist but they had good songs. I already knew about Free Bird, but not much else.

"What bands do you like?" I asked Tyson on the way to the subway station. He'd been quiet for most of the conversation, but he'd definitely been listening.

"Me?" he asked.

"Yeah, you."

He shrugged. "I don't listen to much."

"Oh," I said. That was kinda sad, but I wasn't sure I could swing anything to fix that. Getting him a CD player was maybe too much.

I toyed around on the acoustic guitar waiting for Mom to come home. I went back and forth between the Beatles and Pat Benatar. Then I just started playing a lick that didn't really come from anywhere and didn't mean anything. I leaned back on the couch and sighed.

Mom came home a little late. "Sorry, I had to fix an issue, and it took forever, and, well, anyways, I'm here now."

"Hey," I told her, setting my guitar aside.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She came around to the couch after she'd taken off her coat and boots. "You want to come talk to me while I cook? I'm gonna keep it simple tonight."

"Okay," I said and followed her into the kitchen as she put a pot of water on to boil.

"Did something happen?" she asked me.

"You know Claire, right?" I asked her, crossing my arms and leaning back against the counter.

"Yes, guitarist who also plays piano," Mom said.

"Yeah, so, we're like playing Pat Benatar for Claire because she likes a lot of pop that's not that great for guitar, and today she's like I don't really like electric guitar that much, and she didn't say, but I'm pretty sure she didn't like playing Pat Benatar either. Anyways, she was like saying that me and Ellie aren't fun to play with which I do and I don't get. Like yeah we do learn songs faster than Claire does, but like any time we practice as a group we spend like half the period goofing off so it's not like we're that serious."

I had to pause for breath. "So she says all that, and I'm like it's cool if you wanna do acoustic instead and we can find songs for that but she seemed, I don't know, still not good with that. Then she and Ellie have French together, but she ditched Ellie, and Ellie asked me about it cause only me and Claire had been practicing together, and then Ellie got, uh, kind of upset when I told her that, and then after school Ellie hung out with Claire rather than us so I don't know if that means things are okay or like really bad.”

"Okay," Mom said slowly. "That was a lot of info, but I think I got all that."

"So?" I asked her.

"What are you wanting help with?" she asked. "Like do you want to pick out new music or are you trying to stop a 70s style band break up?"

"The second," I said. "I already said she could go to acoustic, and we could pick different music, and that didn't seem to help."

"Okay, well, it's good you've noticed that you learn the music faster than her," she said. "Where does Joshua land on all this?"

"Uh, I'm not sure he knows. He practices away from us when we're doing guitar only," I said.

"Does he learn songs as fast as you?"

"No, he probably learns them faster. He's been playing double bass since like birth practically, and he doesn’t seem to have like any issues on electric."

"Okay, so Claire feels behind everybody," she said with a slow nod. "What does Joshua do when you're goofing off? Does he get annoyed, too?"

"Uh, not really, he’s really chill," I said. "Sometimes he talks with us, and sometimes he just keeps practicing."

"Have you considered that the goofing off is making Claire feel excluded, too?" she asked. "It sounds like you, Ellie, and Joshua all like the same sort of music, but Claire doesn't. How can she contribute to the conversation if she doesn't know any of the bands you guys do?"

"Oh," I said, wrapping my arms more tightly around myself.

"I think you should talk to Mr. Nick. I'm sure he's helped kids in bands before," Mom said. "And maybe Claire can switch to keyboard or something if that's easier for her. Maybe she learns faster on piano, and she can leave guitar for when she doesn't feel so pressured to keep up."

"Yeah, maybe," I said and sighed.

"Sorry, sweetheart," she said. "Sometimes things don't work out."

Mom made spaghetti and green beans for dinner. She tried to lighten the mood with more funny stories about her coworkers but it didn't really work. I still played for her some while she wrote, but I gave up early.

The next day, I went up to Mr. Nick right at the start of band class.

"What's up?" he asked. His tone was light, but his expression was serious.

"Uh, well, Claire doesn't seem happy with what we're doing in band and was talking about switching to acoustic so I was wondering if you could help," I said.

"Ah, ok," he said with a nod. "Let's wait to get everyone together."

We found Joshua already in the practice room, bass all set up.

Ellie and Claire came in together, practically flinging the door open. "Hey, good news. Claire likes Fleetwood Mac and the Cranberries so we have options for her switching over to acoustic."

"Hey, I was gonna say it," Claire complained.

"Oh, sorry," Ellie said, taking a step back.

"But yeah, I wanna do acoustic guitar, and I wanna do Fleetwood Mac or Cranberries instead of Pat Benatar," Claire said with a nod.

"Okay," Joshua said with a shrug.

"I know Fleetwood Mac, but I don't know Cranberries," I said.

"They did 'Zombie' and 'Linger,'" Mr. Nick said.

I shrugged.

"Okay, I'm gonna try to find some music for you guys, and you can tell Percy about the Cranberries," Mr. Nick said. "Any other questions?"

We shook our heads.

Chapter Text

Winter was kind of the pits in New York between the cold and the gross snow and lack of skateboarding. The only upside was that we didn’t have midterms at Meriwether like we had at Yancy. Will emailed me like a week in about Apollo getting him new shampoo and conditioner and all that so I didn’t have to worry about getting him anything, but Apollo said I could get Will something extra if I really wanted to. That sounded more like Will wheedling both me and Apollo into getting him extra gifts.

The good news was that Will had emailed me before I went sniffing up and down every hair aisle in the city to find Will what he wanted. The bad news was I wasn’t sure what counted as extra. Elias had mentioned hair oil, but I had yet to try out any for myself and giving Will straight coconut oil did not seem correct. I went to an actual store for hair products rather than a convenience store, asked the first employee I found about gifts, and somehow walked out with a coconut scented hair mask for him and a blueberry one for me.

I got the coconut mask shipped out to Will easily enough, but it was a little weird having Mom smell my hair a bunch after I first used my mask.

At school, Miss Angel got me Keesha's House by Helen Frost which was a verse novel and Monster by Walter Dean Meyers which was actually written like a script rather than in prose or verse. They were definitely easier to read than regular books. I did start the required books after them because Miss Angela gave me a disappointed look every time I avoided going to the English corner. Lord of the Flies sucked though. It might be short, but it had older language, and the character Jack annoyed the hell out of me.

As things finally started to warm up, Mr. Nick asked our band, “Would you guys want to perform at the talent show in a few weeks?”

“We don’t have a singer,” I said.

Everyone looked at me.

“What?” I asked.

“I thought you were the singer,” Mr. Nick said.

“Uh, no, I’m not,” I said. “I’m doing lead guitar.”

“You can do definitely do both,” Joshua said.

“You do both then,” I told him.

“Nah, I don’t sing,” he said.

“Neither do I.”

“You sing when you practice though,” Claire said.

“No, I don’t,” I said.

Okay, maybe I mumbled the lyrics sometimes because it sounded weird just instrumental, but that wasn’t the same as singing along.

“You know the songs and can play and sing at the same time so I’m not sure why you don’t want to do it,” Mr. Nick said, looking maybe a little concerned about it.

“I’m not that good at singing,” I said.

He shrugged. “You’re only allowed to play one song so you have plenty of time to practice if you want to do that. Besides, if you pick one of the Strokes’ songs, it’s not like Julian Casablancas aimed for a super polished vocal sound. We’re not asking you to sing in a gospel choir or something.”

“You could pray to Apollo about it,” Ellie said.

I slowly turned around towards her on the drums. She grinned wickedly at me.

“Don’t even joke about that,” I told her.

Apollo could kick my ass with singing any day of the week. He’d also just send me to his ten year old kids to teach me which was more embarrassing.

Ellie just laughed.

“Why would you pray to Apollo?” Claire asked.

“Well, I could pray to the Muses, but he is the god of music,” I said. He’d also probably actually say something to me even if it was just to direct me to his kids.

“Percy’s pagan,” Ellie said. “He thinks Apollo like saved his life or whatever.”

Well, he literally did save my life, but saying that would make things weirder than the mood currently going on in the practice room already was.

“What?” I asked again.

“You’re pagan?” Mr. Nick asked cautiously.

“Yes, it’s not like a secret or anything,” I said.

“So,” Claire said slowly. “You’re like a disciple of Apollo?”

“What? No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not like a priest or whatever. I don’t even pray to Phoebus that often.”

“Phoebus?” Claire asked. “Who’s Phoebus?”

“Still Apollo,” Ellie said. “Percy uses codewords for all the gods.”

“They’re not codewords, they’re epithets,” I said. “It’s different.”

“Why do you need to use epithets?” Joshua asked.

“Because names have power.”

“What does that even mean?” he asked.

“Okay, we don’t need to grill Percy on his religious beliefs. This is still music class,” Mr. Nick said. “You guys can take the rest of the week to decide if you want to join the talent show, whether Percy sings, or you find a singer or you don’t sing at all, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, and the others nodded.

Mr. Nick moved onto the other kids to let us practice.

“I think we should just have Percy sing,” Ellie said. “Practice for real for a couple weeks, and it’ll be fine.”

“I’m fine with that,” Claire said. “I’ll even play electric for ‘Last Nite’ if that’s what you wanna do.”

Joshua only shrugged.

“Alright, whatever,” I said with a sigh. “I will ask my cousins for singing tips.”

“Your cousins or your cousin’s kids?” Ellie asked.

“Cousin’s kids,” I admitted.

Ellie grinned, Claire tried to muffle her giggles, and even Joshua was smiling.

“It’s not that weird, okay?” I asked. “And they’re good singers.”

“Of course,” Ellie said.

“They are!” I insisted.

“Then I guess we’ll all be able to see the improvement,” she said.

“Whatever, let’s just practice,” I said, turning away from her and back to the music stand.

“Don’t forget you have to sing this time,” Claire said.

I sighed, dropping my head back. “Why me?”

“You also need to name the band,” Joshua said. “In case you forgot.”

I turned to glare at him. “You could help, you know.”

“We already did nose goes,” Claire said. “It’s legally binding. You’re the one that has to come up with the name.”

“Fine, whatever, don’t come crying to me when I name us something stupid,” I said, facing forward again. “Let’s just go already.”

Ellie counted us off to start playing.

"What do you want as a band name?" I asked Ellie as we headed over to the skatepark that afternoon. Just enough snow had melted we could actually use it again, but we carried our skateboards as we walked with Tyson since the sidewalks weren’t totally cleared. I wore my helmet so I wouldn’t have to fit it in my bag.

She shrugged. "It's a school band. It doesn't need to be that deep."

"But it should be something cool," I argued. "Right, Big Guy?"

"Right," Tyson agreed.

"You can't use Tyson to win your arguments," she said.

"You want a lame name?" I asked.

"Just do something mythical or Hellenistic or whatever," she said. "The Apollo something or others."

"Okay, first of all,” I said, holding up one finger, “the theaters are named that not the bands. Second of all, the something or others?"

I put up a second finger.

She smiled then pushed my hand down. "Yeah, do you know what a place holder is?"

"Yeah I do,” I said, “that's a bad one."

"You could name us after the Muses, too. They do music stuff."

"Yeah I know they do music stuff," I said. "But the Muses are already a group. I can't just copy their name."

"I said after them, don't just name us the Muses directly," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm going to name us Percy Jackson and the whatevers since none of you wanna help," I told her.

"And you called the something or others a bad place holder?” she asked. “You know if you name it after yourself then you really have to sing. What are Greek groups you can add to your name?"

"No, we're not doing this," I said, waving her off.  

"You've axed the Muses," she said.

"Because they're already a thing."

"The Gorgons?"

"Hard pass," I said, holding up my hand. “Don’t you even know what my name is?”

"Yes, Perseus,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Come on, don’t say it like that.”

She ignored me, “Aren't the Graces originally Greek?"

"Yeah, but again, they’re already a group, and these are all women groups. We've got Joshua, too, you know. It's not just you and Claire," I said.

"Groups with guys," she said, squinting down the road.

“Cyclopes,” Tyson offered.

"I thought Cyclops were just guys,” Ellie said. “Oh, I know. Percy Jackson and the Olympians, that's half guys half girls like our band is, right?"

"Hell no," I said. "That’s a stupid name because you guys aren't Olympians so we will for sure end up cursed, and I don't need a second one of those. Also, fuck the god of war and the god of wine. I'm not naming our band after anything with them in it."

Tyson made a distressed noise.

Ellie gave me a weird look. "Wait, you think you're cursed? How do you even have beef with two gods?"

"No, I know I'm cursed," I said. "And they started it."

Tyson made a louder distressed noise.

"How do the gods start shit with a random kid?" she asked. "Like God only had problems with people because they were sinning and stuff, but I didn't think there were like sins in Greek mythology."

"Yeah, we don't really have sin, but you're not supposed to go around offending gods or whatever. It's just a really bad idea," I said.

"So why’d you do it then?” she asked.

"I didn't do shit. I was doing what I was supposed to do.”

"What were you supposed to be doing?"

"Helping out my parents," I said which was technically true. Father needed me to get the bolt back to prove his innocence which I did. I didn't really rescue Mom myself, but she was the one that asked me not to, and I still helped. I got Medusa's head for her, it totally counts.

"How does that get you beefing with two gods?" she asked. "Did you stop a family feud involving alcohol or something?"

"Yes on the feud, but not so much on the alcohol though," I said.

"Then what's Dionysus mad at you for?"

I sighed. I did not have a good mortal explanation for this one. "It's complicated."

"Oh, that's bullshit," she said. "You just don't want to tell me. Was it embarrassing? You didn’t try to sneak some wine or something, did you?”

"Fuck no,” I said sharply. “I’m not ever going to drink.”

"Oh, sorry," she said. "My bad. I won't talk about it."

"I didn't mean—," I cut myself off with a huff, putting my hand on my helmet and shifting it forward then back again. "I shouldn't have snapped, sorry."

"It's cool," she said. "I just didn't know you didn't like the stuff."

But we were quiet the rest of the way to the park. Even Tyson could tell it was weird as he quickly went to his normal seat on the bench.

"What's up?" Danny called as he and the other two guys showed up.

"Coming up with band names," I said as I set down my board and back pack to buckle up my helmet properly.

"Ooh, do Skaters United," Ben said.

Ellie made a face.

"Absolutely not," I told him.

"Ollies Everyday," Tyler suggested with a shit eating grin.

"No."

"Vert City," Danny said.

"We barely even do vert," I said.

"But the point is it sounds cool," he said.

"Oh, oh, we should do a numbers one," Ben said.

"Skate forty two," Tyler said.

"Okay, you're not allowed to make suggestions anymore," I told him.

"Booo," he complained giving me a thumbs down.

I skated away from him and the topic was dropped. I spent a lot of time once I got home writing out different names, but they all looked stupid on paper. I also asked Mom to borrow the computer to email Lysander for advice on how to sing better.

He wasn't much help. The message I got back from him the next day read.

Hey,

Good on you for expanding your repertoire. You should ask Will about singing. I know he'd be really happy to help you out :)))

Good luck at your talent show!

-Lysander

I huffed. Yes, Will sang really well, but Lysander was definitely doing this because Will liked it more and Apollo had said for him, Sammy, and Aislinn to help me sing. I messaged Will anyways.

Will responded back with stuff that I printed out because I was not doing any of this out in the open of the living room. It didn't look completely unfamiliar after learning guitar. Except there was also a proper way to stand and warm up by loosening tension in my head, neck, and shoulders before even getting to the exercises. Then it was back to scales, but using different vowel sounds rather than being focused just on the key. He even had me buzzing my lips the whole way through a scale.

The problem was getting over my vocal break which wasn't a thing in guitar. All the camp songs had been low enough for me to sing below my break, but I'd actually been singing lower than I was supposed to for the rock songs we were doing, even the ones with male singers, to stay below it. It was not going great.

Then there was the other stuff. Will, Sammy, and Aislinn actually hadn't been kidding about learning how to breathe for singing. He talked for a while about the differences in breathing shallowly which only moved your chest versus breathing deeply which should be expanding your chest in all directions. He said I should sing while lying flat on my back to get a better feel for it. He also gave me a tongue twister 'diction is done with the tip of the teeth and the tip of the tongue' to practice.

At the end of all of that, he added if you tell me what song your doing I can help you with tone and phrasing and pronunciation!

Like there wasn't already enough stuff going on.

I still emailed him back.

Hey,

Thanks for the help. We're probably doing Last Nite by the Strokes. I know how to pronounce English.

-Percy

I got his reply after a few days of practicing scales and breathing and the only thing I was getting any better was the diction.

Not for singing. You got to pronounce things different for them to sound good and be careful how you shape your mouth :P

If you're going to play and sing at the same time, you need to practice doing them together after you're good at them both separately.

Underneath that, he put the lyrics to ‘Last Nite’ with apostrophes for where Casablancas took a breath.

Try with that and let me know if you can make it.

-Will

Sounded so easy in theory. Just breathe. The problem was making it several lines in a row then taking the world's quickest breath that was deep enough to make it through the next lines. I was struggling hard with the part where the singer was quoting his girlfriend.

Practicing with the whole band did not go very smoothly either. We'd played the song before and it had sounded fine, but singing and playing at the same time while trying to pay attention to my breathing and everything else Will said threw me off.

"This is awful," I said, rubbing my hand over my face.

"What?" Claire asked. "I thought we sounded good."

"I'm like completely off with the singing," I said.

"I didn't notice anything," she said.

"You're not gonna sound the same as Casablancas no matter what you do since he uses distortion on the mic so I wouldn't stress," Joshua said with a shrug.

"No, not the sound of my voice, I mean the timing, I'm off," I said.

"Dude, I'm the drummer, you're fine," Ellie said. "We don't need to make an exact replica of the song. It's a middle school talent show. No one's gonna come up with a metronome and judge us."

"I know that, but I just want it to sound good," I said.

Ellie tapped a rhythm against the rim of her drum then stopped. "Hey, you know that guitar solo part?"

"Yes, I'm playing the solo," I told her.

"Yeah so make it longer—,"

"Make it longer? How am I supposed to make it longer?"

"I don't know. That's not my job, you're the guitarist. Anyways, make it longer and just like reset on the singing. Take a breath and when you're good we can start again," she said then shrugged like it was no big deal.

I stared at her.

"Well, are you gonna try it?" she asked, raising her chin in challenge.

"Yeah, fine, I'll just extend a solo or whatever," I said with a sigh and faced forward.

We started again, I survived singing until we reached the instrumental. I had a few seconds until the solo started, but I couldn't think of anything. I played the solo like I was supposed to. I held the last note a little longer, started the solo all over again but added as much flair to it as I could.

When I reached the end, I nodded towards Claire, and we all came into the chorus together. We finished out without any major mishaps.

"Um, yeah, I guess that was better. I think I need to write up a real solo though," I said.

"What?" Joshua asked, sounding on the verge of laughter. "You should play the whole solo that way, just don't leave the gap in the middle."

"But I just played the same thing twice," I said. "It's supposed to build, but I didn't do that."

"Yeah, but it built when you put more sauce on it, just don't pause in the middle," he said, "Come on, go again."

“The solo or the whole thing?” I asked.

“Whole thing,” he said.

“From the top,” Ellie said, counting us in.

We went through the whole song, and I didn’t pause doubling the guitar solo.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m gonna futz with it later though.”

“Yeah, man, you do whatever you want,” Joshua said.

I didn’t stick around too long for skating after school since we were running out of time. Instead, I headed home to get more practice in, and Tyson tagged along for the subway ride. I double checked the book that Mom had gotten me for Christmas when I got back for other ways to punch up the guitar solo. I experimented for a while until I got it sounding the way I wanted.

“You’re taking this whole talent show thing very seriously.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“Woah, sorry,” Mom said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“When’d you get back?” I asked.

“Like a moment ago,” she said. “I’m gonna get changed and start on dinner, okay?”

“Sure,” I said, putting the guitar away from the time being.

“Do you want to record your performance or anything?” Mom asked me while we were eating dinner. “I’m not actually sure if we have a camera or not.”

“No, please, don’t,” I said. “There doesn’t need to be any evidence of it afterwards.”

“But it’s your first big show,” she said. “What if it’s just for me?”

I sighed. “Fine.”

She grinned. “Thank you.”

Now we had to be good if there was going to be a recording of it.  

In the last few days before the talent show, Mom bought a new digital camera, and Mr. Nick had me practice with a microphone on a stand just so I’d know where I’d need it and where to stand ahead of time. It was weird. I also discovered that I had missed the very crucial area of practice known as playing guitar while standing up even though I’d had a strap since new year. I got used to the feeling while Mr. Nick went around helping Ellie and a few of the other kids who hadn’t performed in front of mics like this before.

“Alright, what’s your guys’s band name?” Mr. Nick asked. “We’ve gotta print the programs soon so it’s now or never.”

“Uh,” I stalled. “The Something or Others?”

“Is that a question?” he asked.

I looked around at the everyone else, but no one was complaining. Ellie was even smirking. I shot her a look, but she just grinned.

I turned back to Mr. Nick. “No, our name is the Something or Others.”

“Cool, very garage band,” he said. “I like it.”

On the actual day of the show, I had so much energy I could burst from my skin. I could not sit still no matter what. I even paced on the subway ride back to school with my mom and nearly cracked my head open running into a pole as the train came to a stop.

Mom didn’t even try to make me sit. “Just go around the pole instead of back and forth.”

We were lucky there was enough space between people to do that. We arrived a little earlier than what we’d been told to since I speed walked. Meriwether didn’t have a green room or anything like that, just the back hall behind the auditorium and it’s small stage. I spotted Mr. Nick right away. I waved to him, and he waved back.

“I’m gonna go get my seat,” Mom said before heading towards the entrance for parents and everyone else.

“See you,” I told her before heading over to Mr. Nick.

“Excited?” he asked.

“Nervous,” I said.

“You’ll be fine,” he said. “It’s always a little nerve wracking first getting up there, but you have the muscle memory. You’ve been practicing for weeks.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” I said with a nod. He sent me to the music room to grab my guitar and amp.

Claire arrived next, and Joshua after her. They both got their instruments and amps and set them near mine. Ellie came last, almost on the verge of being late.

“Where have you been?” I asked her.

“We were just running a little late,” she told me. “You need to calm down.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Claire said. “He’s been pacing the whole time.”

“It’s fine, dude,” Ellie said to me. “You’ve practiced way more than any of the rest of us.”

“My mom’s recording the whole thing,” I told her.

“Aw,” she said, smile saccharine sweet.

“Don’t be a dick,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“I didn’t know you were that much of a mama’s boy,” she said.

“Shut up. That’s got nothing to do with it. I just don’t want video evidence when this goes down in flames.”

“Yeah, you’re really gonna set the stage on fire,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Go pray to Apollo or something and chill out.”

“Huh?” I asked.

She shrugged. “He’s the god of music, and he helped you out before, right? Can’t hurt to do it.”

Darryl did pray to him before tests. “I don’t have anything to burn.”

“What?” Ellie asked.

“Burnt offerings,” I said. “I don’t have anything.”

“I think he’ll live. Just pray if you’re gonna do it.”

“Okay, fine, but I don’t tell you how to pray,” I told her.

“That’s because I don’t, but okay.”

I shot her a look, and she mimed zipping her lips. I shook my head and closed my eyes. This was such a stupid thing to pray about, but I’d already prayed to him before just to ask about the Muses. I closed my eyes.

Dear Apollo, I’m about to perform with my band for the first time and Mom’s going to take a video of it so, actually, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do for this part. I just don’t want it to go wrong.

I opened my eyes.

Then I heard Apollo’s voice. Dear Perseus, do I get a copy?

I shut my eyes again. Why would you even want that?

Posterity. What if you get famous in the future?

I shook my head. That’s not going to happen.

Never say never. What’s your band’s name?

The Something or Others.

There was a humming, considering sound. What song are you doing?

Last Nite by the Strokes

Nice choice. Have fun.

I could hear the smile in his voice. I took a breath in and opened my eyes.

“Better?” Ellie asked.

“Yeah.”

“Good because you finally stood still for a little bit,” she said, smiling.

“Shut up,” I told her, smiling back. “I’m going closer.”

Ellie followed me to the doorway that led to the back entrance of the auditorium that led right to the stairs onto the stage. Our band was somewhere in the middle of the program. I listened to all the performers before us and how they introduced themselves. Most of them were solo aside from one quartet from our music class and a group from the choir class.

“Alright, you’re up,” Mr. Nick told us.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” Ellie said, giving my arm a squeeze before heading up on stage.

Ellie’s drum kit had already been set up on stage to make transitions easier, but the rest of us had to set up our instruments and amps. I adjusted the microphone without breaking it or making any horrible noises. It might be just a little school auditorium, but it was still nearly impossible to see the audience with the lights on us and none on the house.

“Hi, we’re the Something or Others, and this is ‘Last Nite’ by the Strokes,” I said.

I heard a few cheers from the audience before Claire led us into the song. There was one little moment where I completely froze, but my fingers started playing the same way they had been the last couple weeks of practice.

I took a deep breath and sang, “Last nite, she said.”

Incredibly my voice didn’t break or anything.

We made it to the instrumental section without anything catastrophic happening. I could step back from the mic a little, breathe normally as Claire continued to play. I came in on time for the solo and nailed it, stepping forward at the end to sing again. The song finished the way it started with Claire hitting the final few chords. I turned around to smile at everyone when we finished, all of them grinning back at me. We got a good amount of applause.

“Thank you,” I told the audience then started packing up for the next kid to come on.

“That was amazing,” Ellie practically squealed into my ear as we made our way to the back hall again. She had her hand fisted in my sweatshirt. “We have to do it again.”

“Great work, guys,” I told all of them.

“Yeah, you killed it,” Joshua said, patting my shoulder. “The futzing worked.”

“That was so much fun,” Claire said, practically jumping up and down in place.

We got a few compliments from some of the other kids who’d been able to hear us in the hall. We didn’t have to stick around backstage anymore since there were seats set up in the back of the auditorium for us and the other performers. We commented on some of the other kids that went on stage, leaning in close and whispering to each other.

We split up afterwards to find our parents as everyone was filing out. I caught Mom near one of the walls.

“Mom,” I called, and she turned towards me.

“Oh, Percy,” she said, moving in my direction then wrapping me up in a hug. “You did so good. I got the whole thing on video.”

“I never want to see it,” I told her. “But Phoebus wants a copy.”

“Huh?” she asked. “Did you talk to him or something?”

I nodded. “Prayed to him before we went on.”

“Okay, well, it seems like he was looking out for you,” she said. “But if he wants the video, he’s going to have to come here to get it because I don’t know how to send a digital video to Olympus.”

Chapter Text

Meriwether might not believe in grades and exams, but New York State still did. We had all the normal standardized tests to take which would take out a couple of normal class days. I got pulled from Mrs. Meredith's class to sit with other kids in a different classroom where there were no distractions and the desks were farther apart. Right after we were told to start, I quickly prayed to Apollo.

Dear Apollo, please help me with this test!

I didn’t get an answer from him, but the English language arts exam seemed way easier than last year. Maybe that was just from getting proper accommodations and time to actually read everything.

Thankfully we had lunch and recess afterwards because I could not sit for a second longer. I ate my lunch pacing back forth in front of Tyson, and I walked circles around the pond in recess. Tyson didn't seem to mind at all, and he said he was fine with how his test went.

That afternoon in PE we had the physical fitness test. We had to count up how many push ups and sit ups and crunches we did as well as measure our mobility. Tyson and I buddied up for it. It was pretty easy. We just did more than the minimums and wrote down however many we felt like doing.

Then came the hard part, the beep test.

I had done about average the last year at Yancy, but that was before all the activities at camp, and then doing proper PE and skateboarding nearly every day I could. Maybe I could finally be above average at something. A beep test still had test in the name after all.

We lined up as Coach Eddie set up cones at the other end to run to. Then she played the test and the same guy gave us the same instructions as ever other time I’d ever done it. The first few shuttles were easy and slow. Everyone had been participating in gym so the first person didn’t drop out until way later than at Yancy, around the end of the forties. Most of the class was out by the seventies as the pace was much faster. Even Tyson dropped out. Those left all did sports except for me who just did skateboarding. By the end of the nineties, it was me and one guy named Carter who I was pretty sure was fifteen. He was out ten passes later.

I glanced over to Coach Eddie to see if I could stop. I was sweating and breathing hard, but I wasn’t totally out of gas.

“If you’re not about to pass out or puke, you should keep going,” she told me.

So I kept going. Back and forth. Back and forth. I stopped paying attention to anything but my breathing, turning at the marks, and the sounds of the beeps. I missed the mark once, and had to speed up. I only made it two more runs before I missed it again.

I dropped to my knees panting.

“Hey, someone go get him some water. Tyson, get him some water,” Coach Eddie said.

I heard her footsteps approaching me.

“You alright, kid?” she asked.

I nodded because I didn’t have enough breath to get out any words.

“Christ, kid, never seen someone run for that long,” she said. “What do you do, marathons on the weekend?”

I shook my head.

Tyson arrived, offering me one of those little paper cups the school kept with the water fountains nearest the gym. I took it from him and gulped it down. I could breathe easier, and my feet didn’t feel like they were gonna fall off anymore.

“Just skating,” I told Coach Eddie.

“What, like for hockey?” she asked.

I shook my head again. “Skateboarding.”

She squinted her eyes at me. “Across the whole island of Manhattan? What kind of skating do you get up to?”

“Just at the park,” I said, gesturing with the cup towards what I thought was the right direction.

“Must be some park,” she said, straightening up. “Take the rest of the period of Percy. I don’t want you doing anything else.”

I gave her a thumbs up. The only thing I did for the rest of gym was find an out of the way area of the gym and lay flat on my back. I might have fallen asleep for a bit. Tyson nudged me up to head to the locker room. I was almost completely normal once I got out of the showers.

That, however, meant I had suffer through the last book for the school year until the last bell rang. I’d managed to finish Lord of the Flies and Johnny Tremain, but I needed to get through To Kill a Mockingbird which was practically killing me. I did not have the vocabulary to get through this book. Miss Angela was helping me as much as she could, but I was not the only kid in the class so sometimes I had to rely on the dictionary.

I turned out to be wrong about that shower I took. I landed a jump skateboarding in the park, bending down to absorb the impact, and then just couldn't stand up straight again. I ended up falling off the board which didn't hurt that much since I was basically only two inches off the ground at that point. I groaned as I rolled over and shoved myself up to my feet. I dragged my sorry behind over to the bench with Tyson and Ellie.

"Can't believe you even managed to skate at all," Ellie said. She was slumped all the way down on the bench so her head could rest against the top of the back, and she had her eyes closed against the afternoon sun.

"I thought I was okay," I said, sitting beside her and mimicking her position. It actually wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be.

"Okay, what's with all the laziness?" Danny asked, and I could hear his wheels as he skated past.

"Beep test," Tyson told him.

"Oh shit," he said, stopping. "How'd you do?"

"Okay," Tyson said.

"I got average," Ellie said sourly. "I was one off from being good."

"I got 157," I said.

Nobody said anything. I lifted my head and cracked my eyes open. Danny and Ellie were both looking at me like I'd gone crazy.

"What?" I asked.

"That's insane," Danny said.

"Are you why Coach Eddie was like don't pass out or puke?" Ellie asked.

"What? No, I didn't do any of that."

"Hey, guys!" Danny shouted towards Ben and Tyler. "Percy did 157 in the beep test."

Both guys swung around to head for our bench.

"How are you alive, man?" Tyler asked as he hopped off his board.

"I'm fine," I said.

"Do you, like, run on the weekends?" Ben asked. "Usually it's all the kids who do like soccer or whatever that get good pacer scores."

"I don't run, and I don't play soccer either," I said.

"So you're just some kinda freak," Danny said.

“Hardly,” I said.

"Nah, you definitely are," he said, gesturing towards me. "All you do is skate, you’re not even that tall, and you got 157 on the pacer."

"You can be short and do well on the pacer," Tyler said.

"But it's easier when you're tall," Danny said.

"Then how come you don't have a 157?" Ben asked.

"Cause we're doing it next week," Danny argued. “I could totally get 157.”

"Whatever, I don't care," I said, dropping my head back down and closing my eyes.

The guys argued for a while about who would do the best on the pacer test. I heard Ellie sigh then she stopped chiming in. Tyson chuckled whenever one of the guys got off a funny remark.

"Hey, you okay?"

I opened my eyes and turned my head towards Ellie. She'd shifted to face me, putting her arm up on the back of the bench.

"Fine," I said. "Tired."

"Well, yeah, you did 157 shuttle runs," she said.

"Yeah," I said. "Gotta admit, not my favorite thing in the world."

"Well, you don't have to do it again until next year," she said.

"Nope," I agreed.

"Hey!" Ben shouted before his voice was muffled.

I straightened up to see Danny holding Ben in a headlock and Tyler laughing. "Should we do something about that?" I asked Ellie.

"You can," she said, shrugging.

I considered it, but Ben didn't seem to be in any real pain. "Nah, they'll live."

Ellie giggled.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna head out," I said. "I need a nap or something."

"Okay," she said. "Maybe I should do the same if they're just gonna be doing this."

Ben and Tyler were both ganging up on Danny in faux-wrestling.

"Yeah, maybe," I said, getting up from the bench and trying not to groan. "Ready to go, Big Guy?"

He nodded and stood up. I picked up my backpack and skateboard.

"See you guys," I told the three wrestlers.

They barely paused to say goodbye before going back to it. Ellie walked with us to the edge of the park, backpack on and her own board in hand.

"See ya," she told us.

"Bye," Tyson said, giving her a wave before heading towards the subway station.

"See you," I told her.

I ended up passing out on the couch.

Mom woke me up when she got home. “Percy, Percy, I got the letter.”

“What letter?” I asked, barely conscious.

“From CUNY,” she said excitedly, holding up a blue envelope to me.

I blinked at it. “Oh, your acceptance letter.”

“Well, I don’t know if I’m accepted yet,” she said, turning it over.

“Then why don’t you open it and find out?”

She took a deep breath in. Then she quickly ripped it open and pulled out the letter. Her eyes scanned over the page. “I got in! For English and creative writing, I got in!”

“Congrats,” I told her.

She frowned at me. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? Are you sick?”

She leaned down and put her hand on my forehead.

I pushed her hand away. “I’m fine. I just did the beep test today.”

“Oh, it went that bad?” she asked.

“The test was fine,” I said, rubbing my face. “I got 157.”

She frowned at me, tilting her head as she looked me over. “How much did you get last year?”

“Like sixty something I think.”

“Huh,” she said, slowly. “You know, I don’t think that’s a normal puberty thing.”

“What do you mean it’s not?”

“I’m just saying,” she said. “I don’t remember any of them boys in my middle school just suddenly being great at sports like that.”

“I’m not suddenly great. I did like PE and skateboarding,” I said.

“You seriously think that’s it?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I don’t think that’s all it is,” she said, clutching her acceptance letter to her chest.

“Then what, you think I’m doing steroids or something?” I asked.

“No,” she said, her voice small. “I think you’re the son of a god.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that. Mom kept giving me weird looks through dinner. I just went to bed early.

The next day we had the math exam, and I caught sight of familiar dark blond hair.

"Ellie?"

She turned to face me and then quickly turned red. "Percy? What are you doing here?"

"Uh, this is where I got told to take the math exam.”

"Yeah, but why here?" she asked, now tugging on the chunk of hair she'd dyed red.

"Because I have ADHD and dyslexia," I said, a little confused because this is where are the messed up kids went to take their tests. "Why are you here?"

"Oh," she said, letting go of her hair. "Um, I have dyscalculia. I get extra time and stuff for math tests."

"Um, not to sound super stupid, but don't you need to like count to be a drummer?" I asked.

"Yeah, um, that's actually why I started percussion," she said, back to fiddling with her hair. "They thought that doing it would help my counting, get more practice in or whatever, and it did, but like only for doing percussion and not anything else."

"Oh, that sucks," I told her.

"Uh huh," she agreed. "It's how I ended up here. I kept failing everything I did in math class so my parents sent me here instead."

I waited, but she didn't keep talking, just continued to mess with her hair.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"What do you mean is that it?" she asked, turning annoyed. "I got pulled out of normal school. That's pretty bad."

"I've been expelled by the end of the school year every year since like kindergarten. I'm still waiting to see what happens this year so really, only being on your second school is pretty good."

"What?" Ellie asked, tugging her hair down straight. "You've been expelled every year? For what?"

I shrugged. "Just stuff."

"No, what, you can't say just stuff for that," she said. "You got expelled, dude."

The teachers giving us the exams started calling for us to sit down so I didn’t get a chance to answer Ellie. I took my seat and got ready for the test. I was definitely more distracted than during the last one. I kept looking over my shoulder at where Ellie was sitting. Not so much for what she was doing, though she was jiggling her leg at lightning speeds and chewing on the end of her hair, but for what she’d said before. I really had to force myself to do the test. My saving grace was that like the reading one, it was easier than normal. I actually even finished early.

Still had to pace around all of lunch and recess to get the energy out though.

At the start of music class, Ellie walked right up to me and grabbed my arm to pull me off to the side of the room. She crossed her arms. “Explain.”

“Explain what?” I asked.

She leaned in towards me and hissed, “The whole getting expelled thing. What were you talking about?”

I shrugged. “I got expelled a lot.”

“Doing what?” she asked. “What could you have possibly done to get expelled?”

“I kind of sent a Revolutionary war cannon into our school bus on a field trip one time,” I said.

“What do you mean kind of?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch. “How does that even happen?”

“Accident,” I said.

“Aren’t those things chained down or something?” she asked.

“Maybe, I don’t remember.”

“How are you just chill with this?” she asked. “There’s no way a kid could get a cannon moving on their own. That couldn’t have been your fault.”

“So?”

“So, they shouldn’t have expelled you.”

I shrugged.

“Why are you just shrugging? This is not a thing you just shrug about,” she said, holding up her hands.

“It’s just what happens,” I said. “Something goes wrong, and then I get kicked out.”

“That’s not how that’s supposed to happen though,” she said. “It’s not okay.”

I resisted shrugging so she wouldn’t tell me not to again. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything, dude, you shouldn’t have been kicked out. Why are you being so chill about this?”

“There isn’t anything to get worked up about,” I said. “I’m a juvenile delinquent. We get kicked out of schools. That’s what we do.”

“What, no you’re not,” she said. “Skateboarding doesn’t make you a delinquent.”

“It’s not the skateboarding. I only started that this year,” I said. “I get kicked out cause I get in fights and yell at teachers and stuff.”

“Since when?” she asked, practically spluttering.

“Since like always,” I said.

“So which teacher have you yelled at here?” she asked. “Because you’ve never yelled at Mr. Nick.”

“Well, I haven’t yelled at any teachers here,” I admitted. “But they’re way nicer here than my last schools. I only had like one good teacher before this.”

“Yeah, clearly,” she said, burying her hands in her hair and looking like she might rip it out.

“What are you so mad about?” I asked her.

“Alright, what is going on here?” Mr. Nick said in that carefully voice that teachers use when they see a kid on the verge of meltdown.

I shrugged.

“Stop shrugging,” Ellie snapped at me.

“I don’t know what you’re mad about. I haven’t done anything,” I told her.

“I know you haven’t, that’s what I’m trying to say!” she said.

“Okay, okay, there’s no need for any yelling,” Mr. Nick said, holding up his hands towards us. “Why don’t we all just take a deep breath and come step over here?”

Mr. Nick guided us over to what we all called the quiet corner. Usually kids only came over here if they were having a bad music day and were getting worked up about something they were practicing and needed a break. Ellie and I hadn’t even started playing anything though.

“Alright, who wants to explain what’s going on?” Mr. Nick asked. “I heard a lot of anger, but not much context.”

“I don’t know what’s happening,” I said. “She’s mad about nothing.”

“No, I’m not,” Ellie insisted to me before turning to Mr. Nick. “Do you know about Percy getting expelled?”

“Ah,” Mr. Nick said. “Yes, all of us on staff are aware of Percy’s academic history. Percy is allowed to share with you what he wishes about that history, but we are not allowed to discuss it with any other students.”

“I don’t need you to discuss it with me. I need you to discuss it with him,” she said, pointing aggressively at me.

Mr. Nick frowned and turned towards me. “Are you having any issues in school, Percy? You’ve been doing really well in class, but if I’ve missed something—,”

I shook my head, and Mr. Nick trailed off. “I’m fine,” I told him. “I don’t know why she’s mad.”

“He said he got expelled because he sent a Civil War cannon into a bus—,”

“Revolutionary War,” I corrected.

“—Whatever! But he can’t have done it. You need like multiple guys to move those things so he shouldn’t have been expelled, but he’s acting like it’s fine and it’s not,” Ellie insisted, stamping her foot.

“Percy is allowed to feel however he likes about his academic history,” Mr. Nick said. “If he’s come to terms with it, that’s more than alright.”

“But it’s not fair,” she said.

“What isn’t fair?” Mr. Nick asked, remaining calm rather than matching her temper.

“Percy being expelled,” she said. “He’s not a delinquent.”

“Again, I cannot discuss his academic history, but I agree that Percy has done very well in my class,” he said. “Ellie, I think you need to take a break. If you would like to continue talking about this matter afterwards, we can have you talk to a counselor.”

“I don’t need a stupid counselor,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Ellie,” Mr. Nick said warningly.

“I know I’m not supposed to call her stupid,” she said. “But I’m still not seeing her.”

“Okay, then why don’t you just practice on your drum kit for a little bit?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said, grumbling.

She pulled her sweatshirt hood up and stalked over to the large practice room. Everyone else was watching her, too. She slammed the door shut on them. They quickly looked away again then slowly started returning to practicing their instruments.

“Are you alright, Percy?” Mr. Nick asked.

“I’m fine,” I said, fiddling with the sleeve of my hoodie. “I didn’t mean to make her mad.”

“I know you weren’t trying to provoke her. Ellie’s reactions are not your responsibility.”

I leaned around Mr. Nick to get a glance at the window to the practice. Ellie hammered away at the drums, hood still up over her head.

“Um, should I not talk to her?” I asked, standing upright again.

Mr. Nick turned around to check on her then back to me. “I’d give her some time to calm down then you can try talking to her. If she’s still angry and doesn’t want to talk, I’d recommend just leaving it for now.”

“I really wasn’t trying to make her mad,” I mumbled. “She’s my friend.”

Mr. Nick sighed. “I don’t believe she’s angry with you.”

“Seems like she’s angry with me,” I said, trying to tug the cuff of my hoodie sleeve down over my hand even though it wasn’t long enough for that.

“I think she’s just angry on your behalf,” he said.

I took a breath. “You said you’re allowed to talk to me about about my expulsions, right?”

“Yes, do you have something you want to tell me about it?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I just have a question.”

“Okay, what’s the question?”

“Are you…mad about my expulsions, too?” I asked, curling my hand up into a fist so I could pull my hoodie cuff past my hand.

“In my professional opinion, I do think some of your expulsions were unjustified. Ellie is correct that it wasn’t possible for you to move a cannon on your own,” he said.

“But you think the other’s were right.”

“I think you’re aware that your past behavior towards your teachers and fellow students wasn’t appropriate so I’m not going to further reprimand you on it right now, but given your work in my class, I believe that in the past your academic needs were not seen to correctly which contributed to your acting out,” Mr. Nick said carefully. “None of those schools were a good fit for you, but it is unfortunate that you had to deal with the damage an expulsion brings. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yeah,” I said, twisting my cuff around so my hand was trapped. “But you’re wrong. You don’t know everything that I did at my other schools. I really was a delinquent.”

“You were a child not getting support for their ADHD and dyslexia,” Mr. Nick said. “It is very hard for kids or really anyone to change for the better without something in their circumstances also changing, whether it’s a different school, a tutor, or a parent. You’re in a better place now so you are better, too. That’s a good thing.”

I nodded because I couldn’t get any words out around the lump in my throat.

“Why don’t you just stay in the quiet corner for a little bit, and when you’re ready, you can get your guitar and practice whatever you’d like,” he said, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder.

I nodded again.

“Okay,” he said, quietly leaving me be.

I faced the wall rather than the class and took a seat on one of the floor pillows, sitting cross legged. I continued fussing with the cuff of my hoodie, half listening to whoever was practicing flute nearest to me. Eventually, I checked the practice room, and Ellie wasn't beating furiously at the drum kit. She actually didn't seem to he drumming at all.

I got up and walked over, ignoring the looks I could feel I was getting. I knocked on the door before opening it.

It was completely quiet inside. Ellie looked up at me from under her hood. "Hey, can we talk?" I asked.

She did nothing, just watched me. Then she sighed and nodded.

I entered the room and shut the door. There were still other chairs left from our last band practice. I pulled two of them over to the window so the backs were to it. Ellie turned on her stool towards me.

"You should come sit here," I told her, gesturing to the second chair. "I don't know who can lip read in the class, but if we try to duck below the window Mr. Nick will definitely come in here to check on us."

"What is this?" she asked, but she still got up from the stool. "Street smarts from shitty schools?"

"Yes."

"Oh," she said as she sat down in the second chair.

I tried to find words to explain everything, but I kept coming up with sorry which was not going to hack it in this situation.

"This is why you like Apollo so much, isn't it?" she asked quietly. She pulled her feet up onto the chair, wrapping her arms around her legs. "You think he got you into this school."

"Huh?" I asked, taking a second to process the words. "No, I don't think he had anything to do with this school. It was last school actually. I had this crazy Latin teacher called Mr. Brunner. He was cool. He was the first teacher I ever had that didn't think I was stupid and really expected me to know stuff. I actually tried for his class rather than cheating like I did for all the other ones."

"Oh," she said. Even with her arms around her legs, she still started to tug on her hair. "My teachers used to think I was smart. I couldn't count, but when I was little, I still had enough time, and they would walk me through things, and then I could add or whatever math thing we were doing. Then they stopped helping me so much and I couldn't do it at all. My parents did everything, tutor, psychologist, the percussion, but I still failed all my math tests. My teacher didn't say I was stupid to my face, but she told me she thought I should be held back and not go to middle school just because of math in front of practically the whole class and I—,"

She didn't finish her sentence. Her face had gone all red and blotchy and she had a death grip on her hair. I didn't need her to.

"That was a dick move," I told her. "She shouldn't have done that. That's the type of stuff I used to yell at my teachers for."

"Yeah, I know she shouldn't have done it," she said, but her voice came out hoarse. "It's the same as with your stupid schools expelling you."

"What? No, it's not," I said.

"How's it different?" she asked.

"I'm mentally disturbed and a delinquent and get into fights and talk back to teachers," I said then shrugged. "You just have dyscalculia."

She scowled at me, letting go of her hair. "You said you have ADHD and dyslexia. If you'd been here at Meriwether at the beginning, would you have done any of that?"

I opened my mouth to say yes, but every teacher I'd had here was more like Chiron than the rest. I wouldn't yell at Mrs. Meredith or Miss Angela or Mr. Nick the way I had my past teachers. I hadn't even yelled at Coach Eddie for sitting me because she gave warnings to kids who aimed for Tyson's back now as well as giving lectures about sportsmanship and teamwork.

But I couldn't have been here from the beginning. Mom had always sent me away to school, away from Gabe. And if Gabe hadn't been here, I'd either be dead or at camp the whole time.

I'd have been taught by Chiron. I wouldn't have yelled at him because I hadn’t at Yancy. I probably would have fought Clarisse, though.

"Maybe," I said, leaning back in my chair, and crossing my arms.

She huffed. "I doubt it."

We sat silently together for a few moments.

"Do you wanna play something?"

"Yeah."

I got up to go grab my guitar. Mr. Nick caught my eye as I was crossing the room, but I gave him a nod. I got the guitar and amp and headed back to the practice room.

Ellie was back behind the drum kit when I arrived. I set up quickly.

"You can play Beatles if you want," Ellie said, shrugging. "I don't know the drum parts, but I can play whatever for you."

I grinned. "You wanna play White Stripes?"

"Yeah," she said, sitting up straighter with the beginnings of a smile.

We'd never gotten any music for them, but I'd played their CD enough to attempt some of them by ear. I didn't have a pedal to make ‘Seven Nation Army’ sound right, but we could play the other songs. Of course, I hadn't practiced them as much and ended up flubbing a note.

"Whoops," I said, trying to find my way back into the song.

Ellie cracked up laughing, completely messing up the beat.

"What's so funny?" I asked, but I was laughing, too.

"Nothing, it was just," she didn't have enough air to finish her sentence and just gestured towards me.

"Thanks," I said.

The bell rung for the end of the period, and our laughter stopped.

"Next time," I promised.

She nodded. “Yeah, next time.”

Chapter Text

My conversation with Ellie wouldn’t leave me alone. I made it through Spanish, and gym, but made no progress on To Kill a Mockingbird when I got back to Mrs. Meredith’s class. I could barely stay on my board at the skatepark. After two close calls, I had enough.

“I’m headed back early, guys,” I called to them as I picked up my backpack and board.

Ben and Tyler booed.

“See ya wouldn’t want to be ya,” Danny called.

Ellie skated over to me and Tyson as we headed to the entrance. “Hey, is everything good?” she asked.

“Yeah, just not feeling it right now,” I told her.

“Oh, okay,” she said. “See you, I guess.”

I took two steps to follow Tyson down the street then turned right back around.

"What?" Ellie asked. "Did you forget something?"

I wrapped my free arm around her shoulders in a half hug. She stiffened for a moment. We weren't exactly a huggy bunch, more likely to bump into each other or shove at each other's shoulders. Then she relaxed and returned the hug, putting her arms over my backpack.

"What's up?" she asked quietly.

I shook my head. "Just, thanks, I guess."

"For what?"

"Earlier."

"Okay?"

"Yeah," I said then pulled away. "See you."

I turned and ran to catch up to Tyson who had stopped at the corner to wait for me. I heard the guys talking behind me, but couldn't make out their words. I could definitely hear Ellie snap, "Shut up!"

"Everything is okay?" Tyson asked as we crossed the street.

"Yeah, it's fine," I told him.

Tyson had been doing better going underground for the subway lately. He didn't always latch onto my sleeve right away. He usually gave in as we waited for the train, though, but that was fine.

When I got back to the apartment, I started pacing, round and round the couch until Mom got home.

"Hey, honey," she said as she was taking off her shoes.

"Why'd you send me to those schools?" I asked.

"Huh?" she asked then finished taking off her shoes and dropping her bag before joining me in the living room.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. "What schools?"

"All those schools that I got kicked out of," I said.

Mom sighed. "You had to go to school, Percy."

"I know, but why those schools?" I asked. "Why boarding schools? Why schools with mean kids and worse teachers? Ones where I'd get blamed for anything and everything? That didn't care about my ADHD or dyslexia?"

"I did the best I could, Percy. After you were first expelled, I had to find places willing to take you despite the expulsions and the records of fighting and disobedience and everything else."

"But why did I have to go to that first school that expelled me? Why couldn't I have gone to Meriwether from the beginning? None of this would have happened if I'd gone there from the start," I told her.

Mom bit her lip, looking like she'd cry. "You know why."

Every time she'd made that face before, looking so fragile and close to tears, I'd backed off. Not this time. "No, tell me why. Tell me why you kept sending me back to boarding schools."

Mom brushed away a couple tears and took a shaky breath. "I didn't want you to spend that much time around Gabe."

"So why'd you get rid of me instead of him!?" I exploded, throwing my arm out. "Why did I have to go to shitty boarding schools while he got to hang around having his poker parties? Why did I have to kill Medusa for you to do anything?"

"That's not what happened," she said, shaking her head.

"Really? It wasn't?" I asked. "Then how come I remember being there for it?"

"Please, don't yell at me," she said, continuing to wipe her cheeks.

"Then just tell me why."

"I wanted to keep you with me—,"

"But you didn't keep me with you!" I shouted at her. "You sent me away and kept Gabe!"

"That's not true," she said, raising her voice. "I kept you out of that camp—,"

"What is your problem with camp?" I asked. "Mr. D's a dick, but Chiron and the counselors are all way better than my shitty teachers! I was happy at camp!"

"But you're happy here, aren't you?" she asked. "You decided to come back—,"

"I wasn't going to," I told her harshly. "I was going to stay at camp. That's how much I hated those schools. Then Luke tried to kill me, and I thought I should see you one last time before I died. That's the only reason I came back. I thought school was going to be just as shitty and horrible as ever, but Meriwether is good. I could have been going there the whole time. Hell, I would have taken public school even to stay with you, but you didn't let me. Why didn't you let me?"

"I needed Gabe's human scent to keep you safe—,"

"No, that's not true," I said, shaking my head. "Monsters still got through, I saw at least one of them before Yancy, and you knew, and you still sent me to boarding school away from you and from Gabe’s shitty awful human scent. Why couldn't you send me to camp at least if you had to send me away?”

"If I sent you to camp then I wouldn't get to see you—,"

"No, no, that's a lie," I said. "You've talked to Chiron before, you knew Grover got sent to watch me, you could have asked Father. You knew you could have seen me! Even if you didn't know you could get into camp, you could have called, sent me letters, Iris-messages, whatever. It's not like I'd gone off and died or anything!”

She shook her head, "It's not enough—,"

"How is it not enough?" I asked. "It's not any less than when I was at boarding school—,"

"It isn't enough," she snapped, fingertips pressed to her temples with her eyes squeezed shut. "When you go to that camp, you're not my son anymore. You're just his. I don't matter at all. I tried to avoid it for as long as possible even though I knew I'd have to give you up eventually."

I scowled at her, but she shifted her hand to cover her face.

"You know what Ellie's parents did when they found out she had problems at public school?” I asked. I didn’t need to yell for this. “They got her a tutor and a psychologist and drums and then sent her to Meriwether before she started yelling at teachers and fighting and getting expelled. Why couldn't you do that?”

"Percy,” she said, still not looking at me.

I brushed passed her, shoving my feet into my shoes and pulling open the door to the apartment.

"Percy!"

I walked out the door, shutting it behind me. I headed for the stairs. I heard the door open behind me.

"Perseus Jackson, you get back here right now," she said, trying to sound as authoritative as she could.

I looked back just to glare at her. "No," I said, then shoved the door to the stairs open.

I ran down them as fast as I could.

"Percy!" Mom's voice echoed down the stairwell.

I came out in the lobby and walked through as quickly as I could without drawing any attention. I pulled up my hood as soon as I got outside and ran. I crossed the street at the first opportunity and took a turn to lose sight-lines with our apartment building. I slowed down to a quick walk after that.

I wandered around for a while, not really paying attention to where I was going. Then I looked up to figure out what street I was on. I wasn't that close to the apartment anymore. I checked my wallet. I had enough cash leftover for the world's cheapest pizza so I headed to a place I knew of.

I bought myself a slice and took a seat at the counter to stare mindlessly out the window. If I'd had a phone, I probably would have called Lysander. Maybe even Ellie. But I didn't have one. Besides, even if I might have Riptide and a shield on me, fighting a monster in a small pizza joint didn't sound that fun.

"Hey."

I turned around in my seat, and looked up. I nearly called him Lysander, but I caught his curly hair on my double take. I dropped my pizza, thankfully on my plate and not the floor.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Apollo.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said as he sat down on the chair next to me. He faced me rather than the counter.

"Eating pizza," I said, picking my slice back up.

Apollo shot it a disgusted look.

"How can you live in New York and not like pizza?" I asked him.

"Easy, I'm not a New Yorker," he said. "You shouldn't be eating that."

"What is your deal with my food?" I asked.

"I'm the god of healing as well as herds and flocks," he said. "Of course, I'm concerned about the quality of food you're eating."

I ignored all that and took another bite of my pizza.

"You want to tell me about why your mother prayed to me in a panic, asking me to come find you after fleeing your apartment?" he asked.

I finished my bite of the pizza. "I didn't flee."

He looked me over and where I was sitting. "Well, you're currently not at your apartment so I'd say it's accurate."

I shook my head. "I just left for a little bit," I said. "I'm gonna go back."

"Alright," he said. He turned his head to look out the window. He was wearing a University of Iowa shirt this time. One of his kids went to school there.

"I don't need a babysitter," I told him.

"Of course. You're thirteen. You're all grown up now," he said, eyes still on the people passing by.

I ate more of my pizza. When I finished my bite, I asked, "Can I ask you something?"

"You just did, but go ahead," he said.

"If I was your kid, would you have made me go to camp full time like you did Will?"

Apollo turned his head, observing me again. "That would depend."

"On what?"

“Many things,” he said which didn’t answer the question at all. “Which one in particular are you concerned about?”

I glowered down at my pizza. “I’ve been expelled out of every school I’ve gone to since kindergarten. Six schools in six years.”

“Hard to say,” Apollo said. “After the first school, I’d have picked the next one. I doubt you would have been expelled then.”

“How would you know?” I challenged.

“I picked Meriwether,” he said.

I blinked. “What?”

“Your father asked me for a recommendation,” he said with an easy shrug. “A little tweak of a web search here, a pamphlet into a purse there, no one’s going to ignore the answer they’re looking for once it’s put in front of them.”

“You manipulated my mom?” I asked.

“I made sure she found the information she was seeking. I am the god of knowledge after all,” he said with a self satisfied smile. “Do you like it?”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Your school.”

“Yeah,” I quietly admitted. No wonder everything had been so good at Meriwether. A god had picked it out for me. “But what if I’d gotten expelled anyways? Even after you’d picked the school?”

“Most likely you would have gone to camp,” he said. “There are unique drawbacks to staying at camp full time, but multiple expulsions outweigh that.”

I started pulling apart my pizza, beginning at the crust and ripping it all the way down.

“Do you want to stay at camp?” he asked.

“I want to go to Meriwether. I want to stay with Mom,” I said, tossing down my pizza. “That’s the whole problem.”

“Then it sounds like there’s a lot you need to discuss with your mother,” he said.

“What’s there to discuss?” I asked. “She made her choice already. Am I just supposed to get over it?”

Apollo shrugged. “Some people do.”

“You know, you’re not very helpful for a god,” I told him.

“I don’t know that I agree. I happen to think I’m a very helpful god, dear Perseus.”

I teared up, and I couldn’t wipe them away because I had pizza grease all over my hands. I gave up, shoving the pizza plate away, folding my arms down on the counter, and hiding my face in them.

“What’s wrong?” Apollo asked. A warm hand rested gently on my shoulder.

I shouldn’t say it. I couldn’t. Never in a million years. All it would do is make things worse. I swallowed it down. I pulled away and rubbed my face with my hoodie sleeve. “Why do you even care? I’m not your kid. We’re just cousins.”

“Well, that’s rather dismissive,” he said, reaching out to pull several napkins from the dispenser. “Cousins don’t matter to you?”

He held them out to me. I grabbed them and quickly cleaned up my face. Then I wiped the worst of the grease off my hands even though there was still pizza left.

“Sorry,” I said.

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” he said.

I sighed. “Now what?”

“Now, you still have to get home to your mother,” he said. “Unless you intend to finish your pizza which I’d really prefer you didn’t.”

“I’m okay.”

“Come on,” he said, getting up. “You’ll feel better with some real food and a good night’s rest.”

I slid down off the chair. “Have you ever told Lysander that?”

“Only all the time,” Apollo said, picking up what was left of the pizza and throwing it away along with the paper plate. “That’s the funny thing about young adults. They all think they know what they’re doing.”

“I thought that was teenagers,” I said as I followed him out of the store.

“Oh, you think that turns off when someone turns eighteen?” he asked. “I assure you, it doesn’t. Let’s go.”

He started walking in the direction of our apartment, and I had to jog for a second to catch up to him and his long legs. He wasn’t quite as tall as Tyson, but he walked with a far more determined stride. I caught people looking at him as they passed. I wasn’t sure if it was whatever Ares had used on the people around him, or if Apollo was just that good looking. Maybe people thought he was someone famous. Either way, I watched a guy too busy staring nearly walk into a lamp post.

We made it back to the apartment building all too soon. I took a deep breath as we walked inside, Apollo holding the door open for me even though he didn’t have a key for it. I pulled down my hood as we rode the elevator to our floor. We walked down the hall and stood in front of our apartment door.

I didn’t knock. Neither did Apollo.

“You can handle this,” Apollo said, reaching out and combing his fingers through my hair.

Something more suited for Will than for me. I didn’t pull away or brush him off.

I reached out and knocked on the door as Apollo took his hand back.

The door flew open.

“Percy!” Mom shouted, grabbing for me the way she had when I’d come back from my quest.

I didn’t return the hug, turning my face away from her.

Mom squeezed me tighter before letting me go, though she set her hands on my shoulders.

“Thank you, Apollo,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he said. He wasn’t smiling.

He gave me a nod.

“Thanks,” I told him. “Bye.”

He disappeared in a warping of the light and the scent of laurel.

“Alright, come on, honey,” Mom said, trying to shuffle me into the apartment. “I made some food, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, pulling off my shoes and heading towards the kitchen table.

Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to see the damned meatloaf. I shoved my fork through as many of the pieces of broccoli she’d made to go with it then stuffed them in my mouth without ever sitting down. I chewed just enough to be able to get out, “Not hungry.”

I walked to my bedroom and slammed the door shut behind me.

“Percy,” Mom called after me, concerned.

“Percy!” she called again, louder and angrier.

I turned on my CD player and raised the volume.

Whether or not this was what Apollo had meant, it was definitely one way of handling this.

I woke up exhausted and hungry. I dressed as quickly as I could and grabbed whatever I could that wasn’t meatloaf to eat as fast as possible. I chugged water to wash it down and left without even talking to Mom.

“Let’s go,” I told Tyson when I got to the subway station.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he followed after me. “You seem mad.”

“I’m fine,” I said.

I paced around the subway station as we waited for the train. I didn’t sit down when we got on, and we seemed to have a wider berth than usual. I skated to school, and Tyson had to pick up his pace to keep up. I led the way to the locker room. I spent way longer than normal soaking under the spray since Tyson had come out before I did.

“Come on,” I told him.

I got dressed quickly, and he did the same. When we got to Mrs. Meredith class, I didn’t respond to her greeting. I didn’t go sit in the reading corner either. I took a desk, pulled my hood up, and put my head down. I’d done it a lot my last few weeks at Yancy when my grades all slipped, but that couldn’t get me here. I didn’t have any grades.

“Percy, are you feeling alright?” Mrs. Meredith asked, all kind and nice.

“I’m fine,” I told her, not even picking up my head.

“Percy, if you’re sick, you should go to the nurse,” she said, still all gentle.

“I’m not sick,” I said, lifting my head just enough for her to hear me. “I’m fine.”

I put my head back down.

“Percy,” Tyson said cautiously.

I ignored him, keeping my head firmly down.

Eventually, I heard the other kids coming in and taking seats. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to listen to them talking about me.

“Percy,” Tyson said once class officially started. “What are we gonna do today?”

“Do whatever,” I told him. “I don’t care.”

“But Percy—,”

“Figure it out,” I snapped, picking my head up. “You know how to do everything You can do it on your own. Leave me alone.”

Tyson made a wounded noise, but I just buried my head back in my arms. I heard him shift a few times then eventually get up and move away.

Miss Angela tried to talk to me next. "Are you feeling alright, Percy?"

"I'm fine," I told her, very close to snapping.

"Alright," she said, still so annoyingly calm. "I'm going to give you ten minutes then check in."

I didn't acknowledge her, just kept my head down. She came back as promised, but with To Kill a Mockingbird in hand.

"Hi, Percy," she said, tone too bright for how miserable everything was. "Do you feel up to reading? You don't have to go to the English corner or the reading corner if you don't want to. I can stay and help you—,"

"I don't need help," I said, taking the book from her. "I know how to read."

"Alright, I'll check in about a half hour from now, okay?"

I didn't answer, just opened the book to where I'd left off. But I couldn't read. The letters were all jumbled up. I just glared at the page, and it refused to make any sense.

"How are you doing, Percy?" Miss Angela asked.

"I'm fine," I grumbled.

I caught her talking to Mrs. Meredith afterwards. She came back to me a few minutes later.

"Percy," she said as she sat at the empty desk next to me. "Do you need to go visit the counselor? If something's happened that you need to talk about, they'll be able to help you out and then you can come back and do your work."

"I don't need to see a counselor," I said.

The only thing they ever did was give me anger management exercises that didn't work. They didn't care if teachers called me lazy or Nancy Bobofit was bullying Grover, or I never got the extra time I was supposed to get for tests. What could a counselor possibly say to fix that my mother would rather send me to schools I get expelled from than let me go to camp and be known as the son of Poseidon?

"Alright, I won't force you," she said. "I just wanted to remind you that you could."

"I'm fine," I said, but I was tired more than angry now.

"Okay," she said.

I made no progress on To Kill a Mockingbird, and both Miss Angela and Mrs. Meredith gave me concerned looks as I left for lunch. I was starving. I normally didn't buy food at the cafeteria, but I did this time. I ate until I started feeling sick.

"Are you okay?" Tyson asked me in a small voice.

"I'm fine," I told him again.

"You seem sad," he said.

"I'm not."

He frowned, but he didn't say anymore.

At recess, I laid down flat on my stomach beside the pond. I dunked my hand in, swirling it through the water just to feel it.

In music class, I grabbed my guitar and amp and holed myself up in one of the small practice rooms with my back to the window. I messed with the amp until I got a sound that would normally be too ugly to deal with for an hour, but it was just right today. I fooled around with a few different songs, seeing which ones suited the distorted sound best.

During a break between songs, there was a knock on the window. I turned, and Ellie was standing there. She pointed to the door. I nodded.

After a moment, she joined me in the practice room, shutting the door behind herself. "Are you mad about yesterday? Because I really didn't mean—,"

I shook my head.

"Are you sure? Because it feels like it's about yesterday," she said.

I gestured towards the other chair, and she turned it so the back was towards the window before sitting next to me.

"It's not," I said. "Well, not about anything you did."

"So it's…what I didn't do?" she asked.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "It's..."

I sighed.

"You don't have to tell me about it," she said. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't mad at me and broke up the band."

"Huh? No, it's not like that, it's," I hesitated.

I turned towards her, and she looked worried, lips pressed together and tugging on the end of her hair.

"I had a step-father," I blurted.

"Uh, okay?” she asked, wrapping her hair around her finger.

"He dipped, last summer," I said, keeping with Mom's cover story. "Good riddance. If he'd stuck around any longer, I'd've—,"

It was too much to say to a mortal.

"You'd have what?" she asked.

"Doesn't matter," I said, shaking my head. "But the reason I went to all those shitty schools was because of him. Mom put me in boarding schools to keep me out of the apartment and away from him."

"Oh," she said quietly. "That sucks."

"Yeah, I know," I said, running my hand over my thigh not occupied by the guitar like the denim could scrub off my anger.

Ellie cleared her throat. “I…I don’t really think she should have done that.”

"I don’t think so either," I said, still rubbing my thigh.

"Oh,” she said awkwardly. “Okay. Good. I guess.”

I just nodded.

Something brushed the back of my arm, and I lifted it out of the way. But it was just Ellie reaching out. I sighed, lowering my arm again, letting her touch me. She curled her hand around my arm just above the elbow. She brushed her thumb over my arm a few times.

I leaned back in the chair. Ellie didn't let go, but she stopped moving her thumb.

"Does your dad know?" she asked. “Did he say something to you?”

I shrugged. "I haven't talked to him yet. I've never seen him that often."

"Oh," she said in a low tone. "Because of your step-father?"

I opened my mouth, shut it, sighed. "My dad's married to someone else. He wasn't supposed to have me with Mom. It, uh, kinda blew up this summer when I started meeting his side of the family."

“That sucks,” she said, giving my arm a squeeze. “But your cousin and his kids are on your dad’s side of your family, right? And they like you.”

I nodded. "Yeah. My mom actually called my cousin to bring me back home yesterday.”

“Was that good?” she asked. “Like, was it better than calling your dad or someone else?”

“He, uh, he told me that he actually picked out Meriwether for me since my dad asked for a recommendation so, uh, yeah, probably.”

I shifted my arm. Ellie let go of me, pulling her hand back. I caught her wrist as she was moving.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” I said as I let her go.

“It’s okay,” she said, setting her wrist down down in my hand.

I ran my thumb over her bracelets as I held it. She always wore something on her wrist though I wasn’t sure they were the same ones every time since it had been hard to tell with her hoodie sleeves covering them.

“Can I ask about these?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “They’re not that special.”

“This one?” I asked, running my thumb along a flat orange and white friendship bracelet.

“My friend Addison made that for me at summer camp,” she said. “She moved away last year.”

“That sucks,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“This one?” I asked, running my thumb over a braided blue and yellow friendship bracelet.

“Also from Addison at camp,” she said.

“Are all of them from Addison?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” she said with a nod.

“Which ones aren’t?” I asked.

“The beaded one,” she said.

I ran my thumb over the beads. Two were larger than the rest, white with black letters on them. I turned my head to try and read them. “So?” I asked, looking up at her.

She shook her head. “No, S. O. For the Something or Others.”

I looked at the letters and the black and red beads. “This definitely isn’t from Addison.”

“No,” she said with a smile. “Claire made it for me.”

“Did you make one for her?”

“I tried. It was really bad. I got beads everywhere, and it ended up being too small after all that.”

“It’s the thought that counts,” I said.

“Sure,” she said sarcastically.

There was a knock on the door before it opened. Mr. Nick popped his head in, and Ellie snatched her hand back.

“You guys practicing in here?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said smoothly. “Well, sort of. I was telling Ellie maybe we should do Reptilia.”

“But I was telling Percy that we said we’d do one of Claire’s songs, either Linger or Dreams.”

“I can’t sing either of those,” I said.

“You totally can.”

“They’re girl songs.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “So? You can still sing them.”

“Can’t we make Claire do it?” I asked. “Everyone made me sing for Last Nite.”

“I don’t think she wants to sing and play at the same time,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it either.”

“You know what,” Mr. Nick said. “I’ll just get the music for both of them and you can figure it as a group.”

Mr. Nick left the practice room, and Ellie turned to me with a small smile.

“I was serious about not singing those songs,” I said.

“Percy,” she whined. “It’s for Claire.”

“I’m not singing girl songs.”

“Why not?” she asked. “Guys can do covers of girl songs just like girls can cover guy songs.”

“I can’t sing that high,” I said.

“Can’t you put it down or whatever?” she asked. “I don’t do the notes stuff on drum kit.”

I groaned as I slumped down over my guitar. “I don’t wanna. It takes work to transpose stuff.”

“Lazy,” she said, poking me repeatedly in the back. “You’re the one who wanted a band.”

“To do fun songs,” I said. “Not to figure out how to transpose Linger then sing it.”

“Suck it up,” she said. “Not everything’s about you.”

Then she got me in the side, and I jerked upright.

“Sorry,” she said.

“You’re not sorry at all,” I accused her.

She held her finger and thumb close together. “Only a little.”

The bell rang.

I sighed.

“You want help packing up?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to have to go to my next class. Today sucks.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But it gets you a step closer to today being over right?”

The day being over meant going back home to my mother.

Ellie helped me put the amp away anyways.

Chapter Text

I spent the last couple weeks of school reading To Kill a Mockingbird as fast as I could and struggling through my last essay. Miss Angela was practically glued to my side since everyone else had finished all their major assignments, including Tyson. They all got to do whatever fun topic they wanted, and I tried not to fling any books at the wall.

Spanish was at least only watching Spanish movies, and PE was whatever games we wanted to play after warm ups. Music class should have been easy, but doing Linger was bugging me. The song wasn’t all that difficult on guitar which left me figuring out how to transpose the singing. Mr. Nick helped me with the beginning, but he left me to do the rest as practice.

Things were also tense at home. I avoided Mom, staying out of the apartment as long as I could while still making dinner, and I didn't talk during it no matter how many times she tried to cajole me into talking. She even gave me a bag of blue candy. I threw it away right in front of her. The start of camp couldn't come fast enough.

On the second to last day of school, the temperature spiked. I'd abandoned hoodies a while ago, but I wore shorts and my shark t-shirt from Darryl and Annabeth to school since it was the lightest thing I owned.

"Did you piss off Apollo?" Ellie asked in music class as we were practicing White Stripes songs together since everybody had seemed tired of Linger and Joshua had wanted to do Red Hot Chili Peppers while Claire wanted more Cranberries, and I hadn’t listened to enough of either to play off the cuff.

"What?” I asked. “No, never. I wouldn’t do that to him.”

She looked surprised. "I wasn’t, like, serious. I was just joking because it's so hot out, like look at this."

She raised her arm to point at the sweat stain on the armpit of her red shirt.

"Gross," I told her.

"I'm wearing deodorant," she said, lowering her arm. "It's just too hot."

I checked under my arm. I quickly put it down again, and Ellie burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you," she said. "You're sweating way more than me. You're gonna stain that shirt."

"I better not," I said, pulling the armpit of the shirt out to try and get a better look. "It was a gift."

Ellie shrugged. "I don't know how you fix sweat stains, but you probably shouldn't use bleach on that."

"Yeah, not on this one."

But the mention of Apollo stuck with me. Was he actually angry about something the way my father and Zeus had made all those storms last year when the bolt was missing?

I emailed Lysander when I got home, leaving the skatepark early since we were all dying in the heat.

Hey,

Is everything okay with your dad? It got super hot out of nowhere so I was just wondering if something happened.

Hope things are okay,

Percy

I didn't get an answer.

That night I had a strange dream, but it didn't have anything to do with why Apollo had decided to start roasting everyone. Instead, Grover ran from something chasing after him during a heavy storm somewhere in tropical with palm trees. He dove into a bridal boutique with a map of Florida on its window for shelter.

Lightning flashed and deep voice bellowed, "MINE!"

I woke up safe in bed, but covered in sweat from the blazing heat.

There was a knock on my door. "Percy, honey?" my mom called through it cautiously. "I made you breakfast for your last day of school if you want it."

I nearly asked her if it was meatloaf. I didn't answer her as I started my morning routine. She thankfully wasn't still at my door when I made my way to the bathroom. I checked the kitchen after I was ready to head out just to see what she'd prepared.

Blue waffles sat stacked on a plate in front of my spot at the table.

"Aren't you gonna have any?" she asked when I didn't sit. "You made it through a whole school year."

I scowled. "Yeah, first time for everything, huh?"

Her face fell for a moment then she rallied with a smile. "Maybe we can go get you a new skateboard this afternoon to celebrate the end of the school year."

I searched her face. My skateboard was beat up after a year of braking, bumping, and crash landing, but something else was going on. "No, I'm packing for camp this afternoon."

"About that..." she said, wringing her hands.

"What happened?" I demanded, taking a step towards her. "Did something happen with Phoebus?"

"With Phoebus?" she asked. "No, nothing like that. I only got a message from Chiron last night."

"And you didn't want to tell me then?" I asked. "I was here the whole time."

"You were doing your music, and I didn't want to interrupt," she said.

"You interrupt me for Chiron or anything from camp," I said. "What did he say?"

"He thinks it might not be safe for you to come to camp just yet."

"Did he say why? Was it Luke?" I asked.

"He didn't say," she said, shaking her head. "Just that they were having difficulties with the borders."

"If it's Luke, I have to go," I said.

"Percy, I don't want you going if it's not safe," she said, stepping forward.

"That didn't stop you from sending me to boarding school," I said, turning away from her.

"That's not the same," she said, and I could hear her following me. "You literally almost died there—,"

"Yeah? Well you banked on Gabe smelling so horrible nothing serious would attack me, but guess what? They did," I said, barely glancing over my shoulder as I made my way to the door. "At least at camp there's people I can fight with. If you won't take me, I'll go myself."

"Percy—,"

"Bye, Mom," I told her and headed out the door.

I met Tyson at the subway, and he didn't grab onto me this time at all. We were quiet showering, and I made sure to shower with the water set all the way to cold. I purposefully left my hair wet to help cool off.

"Listen up, students," Mrs. Meredith announced. "We have a few guests today. They're here to see how the school works so please be nice to them."

All six of the guys were Tyson sized, but they didn't seem like oversized kids. I wasn't going to blame any of my classmates for avoiding them. The newcomers sat in the back of the classroom as everyone else scattered to the appropriate subject sections as class started.

Only one kid approached them as class went on, Matt Sloan. He was one of the fifteen year olds, and he could not shut up. He was the one who had started throwing balls at Tyson's back in gym, and I'd sat out more times for snapping at Sloan than anyone else.

"They smell funny," Tyson said, scrunching up his face.

"Just keep your distance," I told him because there wasn't much else to do. I couldn’t just ruin my chance not to get expelled for once this late in the game. Especially not from a school Apollo had picked out for me.

I did my best to ignore them. I finally finished my essay for Mrs Meredith. I turned it in then sacked out in the reading corner. Tyson joined me and started reading me a non-fiction book about octopus. It was definitely a book meant for kids and he read slowly, but he got through it pretty evenly. But the information went in one ear and out the other as I was distracted by what Grover could possibly be doing in Florida when he was supposed to be out looking for Pan. I couldn't even determine what kind of monster was after him because the ones that could speak usually didn't chase you down like that. They set traps and tricked you instead.

During music class, we messed around with our amps, figuring out who could make the most distorted tone with Claire back on electric guitar and Ellie serving as judge. Claire kept claiming that Ellie was biased, and Ellie kept insisting that she most definitely absolutely was not. I didn’t think it mattered since Joshua was beating me and Claire by a country mile with the different sounds he could get out of his bass.

"You're still skating with us after school even though you're leaving tomorrow, right?" Ellie asked as we headed for our language classes.

"Yeah, until I start dying of thirst anyways," I said.

"We're gonna melt like popsicles, it’ll be great," she said, giving me a double thumbs up before heading the other way to her French class.

We finished the last movie we were on in Spanish though I spent the period trying to decipher what problems with the borders meant for camp. Luke wasn’t exactly known for any sort of magical abilities so how could he have attacked the borders? Could someone make a curse for him like with the shoes?

Then we headed to PE where, unfortunately, we had to deal with the guys who were shadowing the class.

"Got a treat for you guys," Coach Eddie said. "Dodgeball."

Everyone cheered except for Tyson and me.

"If I catch any of you throwing balls at anyone's head, you will sit out for the rest of the period," she said, sending a sharp look at Sloan.

She split the class in half, explained the rules everyone already knew, walked to the side of the gym, and blew the whistle to start.

I darted forward for one of the soft, squishy foam balls she'd set up. I got pegged in the shoulder as I was reaching out, and it stung. How hard did you have to throw a soft ball to make it hurt?

I quickly backed up. Sight-lines were more important than grabbing a ball. One of the visitors cocked his arm back and threw. I ducked down, letting it sail past my head. It smacked loudly into the wall.

"Hey!" Coach snapped. "Watch it on the speed! This is a friendly game."

Somehow, I didn't get the impression these newcomers were all that friendly. If anything, they looked gleeful at the potential violence. They also looked like they were growing two feet taller and as well as sharper teeth.

Tyson had said they smelled funny.

Monsters. After a full year, they were finally here.

Kids on both sides were starting to back away.

"Get out of here!" I shouted, and they bolted for the doors.

One of the giants threw a ball towards them. I couldn't make it in time for the first one, and thankfully all the kids ducked. As the second giant threw, I smashed the face of my watch. The shield opened in time to deflect the ball.

"Let them go!" I shouted at the giants.

"And lose our tasty morsels?" one asked. "No, son of the sea god. We came for lunch!"

He waved his hands and new balls appeared. They weren't made of soft foam, though. Instead, they were made of perforated bronze, fire flickering inside of them.

"Evacuate immediately!" Coach Eddie yelled, pulling the fire alarm next to the door as kids ran screaming past. "Jackson!"

"I got this!" I told her. "Go!"

For a second, she didn't move at all. Then she left to follow everyone else except for one.

"Tyson, what are you doing?" I asked. "Get out of here!"

He blubbered over getting hit in normal sports games. He wasn't going to survive this no matter how big he was.

"No," he said even though he sounded on the verge of tears. "I can help."

I let out a frustrated breath and pulled Riptide from my basketball shorts. I used my thumb to pop off the cap, transforming the pen into a bronze sword. A giant launched a bronze ball at my head. That's right around when Apollo's birthday gift for his kids sounded like a really good idea.

I kept low and light on my feet as I advanced. I dodged two more balls on the way to the first giant. He swung his meaty fist downwards which was easy enough to block even if it nearly numbed my arm behind the shield, but I'd dealt with that before. I thrust forward, cutting into what would be the femoral artery in a human. He shattered into dust.

I lowered my shield to see a ball headed for Tyson. "Move!" I shouted at him in warning.

He didn't. The ball slammed into him hard enough he took a step back. He didn't splatter into viscera and crushed bones. Instead, he held the ball against his chest with both hands.

He'd caught the damn thing.

He launched it back at the closest giant. He disintegrated from the chest out.

"No, my brothers!" the largest of the giants shouted. "You will pay for their destruction!"

"Look out!" I shouted, dodging out of the way of the balls coming for me.

The sounds of the bronze cracking the walls did not seem to be good in terms of the building’s structural support. Hopefully everyone was outside already because of the fire alarm.

I darted towards the next giant, dodging back as he swung his fists at me. As he tried to pummel me from above, I swung upwards, lopping his hand off at the wrist. He screamed in pain and rage. I shoved my sword into his gut to shut him up.

There was a blur of movement in the corner of my eye, and I raised my shield. The force of the ball crashing into me sent me sliding back several feet until I hit the mats protecting the wall which just barely kept me from getting winded. The ball dropped down at my feet, but the damage was done to my shield.

The giant advanced on me, and I hunkered down with my very busted up shield.

Then the giant froze, his expression twisting as he let out a guttural breath. He fell away to dust and revealed Annabeth. She barely looked any worse for the wear, bronze knife in one hand and her baseball cap in the other.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Helping, what's it look like?" she asked, turning towards the last giant as it advanced on Tyson.

"How'd you even get here?" I asked, before jogging towards the giant, aiming to keep out of his view.

He caught me at the last second, swinging his arm wildly around towards me. I dropped down so it harmlessly went overtop of me. I lunged and stabbed him in the side. He exploded into dust.

I relaxed out of my stance. Annabeth grabbed my arm and started pulling me. "We need to go."

"What? Go where?" I asked. "I need to check on Tyson."

"Who's Tyson?" she asked.

"My friend who just saved my life," I said, gesturing to Tyson.

Annabeth looked horrified. "We need to go. He’s tricking you.”

“Tricking me?” I asked, as she continued pulling me towards the exit.

“He’s a Cyclops,” she said, tugging harder.

“What?” I asked, stopping short.

She pulled again, glancing fearfully over at Tyson, but I didn’t budge.

I followed her gaze, really looking at Tyson as he wrung his hands nervously. I hadn’t ever really looked him fully in the face, stopping somewhere around his messed up teeth and his large nose. It wasn’t because he was tall.

No, it was because he had only one eye in the middle of his forehead.

“We need to go,” Annabeth said, using more force to try and pull me away. “Cyclopes eat people.”

“What? No, they don’t. They work the forges,” I said.

“The ones out in the world do,” she said.

“Tyson wouldn’t.”

“I wouldn’t,” Tyson offered. “I like peanut butter.”

Annabeth looked like she was going to puke as she gripped me tighter. She turned to me. “We need to get back to camp, now.”

“What’s happening at camp?” I asked. “Mom said there were problems with the borders.”

“Yeah, it’s bad, that’s why we need to go,” she said.

“Alright, I’ll grab my stuff, and we’ll go,” I said.

“We don’t have time.”

“We’ll make time,” I said.

“You just got attacked by Laistrygonians, and you think we have to time to do anything more than head for camp?”

“Yeah, I do,” I said, pressing the button for the shield to collapse.

It made a horrible shrieking noise, but eventually it went back to looking like a wristwatch. I capped Riptide and shoved the pen back in my pocket.

“Let’s go,” I told Tyson, heading for the locker room.

“You’re not seriously bringing him with us, are you?” Annabeth asked, hesitating for only a moment at the door before following me in. “He’s a Cyclops.”

“Daddy said to stay with Percy,” Tyson said, following after us.

I stopped where I was. Annabeth continued on so she was on the far side of me from Tyson.

“Wait,” I said, turning around to face Tyson. “You’re a Cyclops.”

He nodded.

“Then your father is my father. We’re brothers,” I said. “You prayed to him, and he sent you here? Why didn’t he tell me any of that?”

“He didn’t?” Tyson asked, wringing his hands. “I thought that was why you helped me.”

“It wasn’t,” I said, but my tone didn’t come across as very reassuring. I was for sure going to do some angry praying later.

“You’re seriously just accepting him as, as,” Annabeth voice petered out as she gestured aggressively towards Tyson.

“I’ve read the Odyssey, too, you know,” I said, going to my locker to pull my things out. “Grab what you need Tyson.”

Tyson moved to open his locker, and Annabeth backed away.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Annabeth asked. “We don’t have time for you to change. We need to go.”

“I’m not changing,” I said, though I did shove my clothes into my backpack. “And I mean, I know Polyphemus is my half-brother. None of my siblings are demigods.”

I pulled my backpack on and faced Annabeth. Athena might not have any immortal children or a husband, but my father had a wife. He had real heirs, legitimate immortal gods for children, not just bastard demigods like me. My father also had horses like Pegasus for kids so Cyclopes were just another thing on the list.

“Oh,” she said.

“Yeah, oh,” I said. “Come on.”

I led the way out of the locker room, the other two following though Annabeth still kept a wary distance from Tyson. I headed for Mrs. Meredith’s classroom as the fire alarm continued to blare. I grabbed my helmet and skateboard.

“Seriously, you’re wasting time getting a skateboard?” Annabeth asked.

“Yeah, I am,” I said. “I spent weeks without clothes or anything else last year. I’m not doing that again.”

She sighed heavily, but I ignored her.

I went out the entrance closest to Mrs. Meredith’s classroom, but of course, that meant she was there with the other teachers and students from that section of the building.

“Percy? Tyson?”  Mrs. Meredith asked. “What are you doing here? The gym’s on the other side of the building.”

“We gotta go, family emergency, sorry,” I said.

“What, Percy, you can’t just leave in the middle of a fire drill,” she said.

“Sorry,” I said, moving away before she could try and grill us anymore. Besides, it’s not like I was going to be allowed back after this.

We made our way past the lines of students and teachers outside.

“Wait, Percy!”

I turned back.

Ellie had left her class’s line even though her teacher was calling for her to come back.

“Where are you going?” she asked. “What happened?”

“Family emergency, I gotta go,” I said.

“But you’ll be back?”

“I don’t know,” I said even though I definitely did from the amount of damage done to the gym walls.

“Oh,” she said, her face falling.

“Sorry,” I said, wrapping my free arm around her shoulders. “I’ll find a way to meet up with you, okay? At the skatepark or something at the end of summer. Promise.”

“Okay,” she said, returning the hug. “Uh, good luck with your family stuff.”

“Yeah, uh, we’ll see how that goes,” I said, letting her go.

“See you soon,” she said, giving me a weak smile before rushing back to her class. She ignored her teacher reprimanding her to give me a half wave goodbye.

I returned it then turned around to see Annabeth glaring at me.

“What?” I asked her as I picked up the pace into a jog. Skating would be faster, but Annabeth didn’t have a board.

“What was that about?” she asked, keeping pace easily.

“That was Ellie,” Tyson said. “She’s our friend.”

“I wasn’t asking you,” she snapped at him.

“What is your problem?” I asked.

“My problem?” she asked. “You’re the one thinking bringing a Cyclops to camp is a good idea. He’s a monster!”

“He’s a kid,” I argued. “Dad sent him to me so obviously he’s not a danger to demigods.”

“You don’t know that. Your dad’s tried to kill heroes before,” she said.

“For attacking his kids, and guess what? I’m his kid,” I said.

“I’m not!”

“I don’t eat people,” Tyson put in. “I’m a good boy.”

Annabeth scowled at him and walked faster.

I led the way into the subway station, and we had to rush to make it onto the train.

“Wait, this isn’t the way to camp,” Annabeth said, looking around at the signage. 

“Nope,” I told her. “I told you. I’m not going back without any clothes again.”

Annabeth huffed and moved as far away from Tyson as she could get without leaving the car.

Chapter Text

We got off at our usual stop, but this time, Tyson came with me rather than going his separate way. I unlocked the door then said, “Uh, Tyson, don’t step on the welcome mat. Just in case.”

Tyson carefully stepped over it to enter the apartment.

“I’ll be back in a second,” I said. “Don’t move. Don’t touch anything.”

I went to my room and quickly pulled everything for school out of my bag. I grabbed my duffel bag and started packing up my clothes. Gordie could have done a much better job, and I was sure I’d forgotten something. I put my non-clothes stuff in my backpack like my helmet and pads since there was no way we were skating all the way to camp. Then I headed into the bathroom to grab all my hair products and body wash and deodorant and everything else to put in my shower bag.

I got out of the bathroom with my duffel and picked up my skateboard again right as the front door opened. Tyson and Annabeth both turned towards it.

“Percy!” Mom called angrily. “Why did I get a call from your school that you ignored a fire alarm and —,”

Mom cut off with a screech, stumbling backwards out into the hall. “Percy!”

“Relax, Mom, it’s fine,” I told her.

“It’s not fine, there is a Cyclops in the apartment, and your little trap didn’t even go off, what are you doing?” she asked, her voice shrill.

“Mom, this is Tyson,” I told her, gesturing to him.

Her eyes went wide as Tyson waved at her.

“You didn’t want to mention he was a Cyclops?” she asked.

“I didn’t know he was a Cyclops,” I said, sliding between Tyson and Annabeth to get out of the apartment. “I’m not clear-sighted.”

“What do you mean you’re not clear-sighted?” Mom asked. “You’re a demigod.”

Annabeth slipped out of the apartment after me.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” I said. “I couldn’t see he had one eye until Annabeth pointed it out.”

“How did this happen?” she asked, gesturing to the entrance where Tyson was carefully stepping over the welcome mat again. “How did he get put into a private school if he’s a Cyclops?”

“He said Dad sent him to school so don’t worry,” I told her, “you won’t be the only one I’m mad at anymore.”

“Percy,” Mom said, pale faced and with watery eyes.

“I’m going to camp now,” I said. “I’ll see you this fall. Bye, Mom.”

“Wait, Percy, get back here,” she said, trying to follow us as we headed for the stairs. “It’s not safe.”

“I told you if you weren’t going to take me, I’d find my own way,” I said, giving her a perfunctory wave before shoving open the door to the stairs and heading down.

“What was that about?” Annabeth asked as she followed me down. “I thought you liked your mom, why are you so mad at her?”

“We’re having issues,” I said. “What’s happening at camp?”

She didn’t answer as we walked out into the lobby.

“Annabeth,” I said, turning to face her. “What’s happening at camp?”

“I can’t tell you. It’s not safe to talk about it in the open like this,” she said, looking around even though there wasn’t anyone or anything aside from us in the lobby.

“I’m going to go ahead and guess that it’s what Phoebus is so mad about,” I said.

“Yeah, he’s trying to work on it from what I’ve heard,” she said.

“Is that why you’re here?” I asked. “Phoebus sent you?”

 She shook her head, “I had a dream last night.”

“About Grover?” I asked.

“No, to get you,” she said with a frown. “You had a dream about Grover?”

“Yeah.”

“Who’s Grover?” Tyson asked.

“A friend of ours,” I told him as I pushed open the lobby door and walked out to the street. “He’s a satyr off searching for Pan, but I had a dream last night he was being attacked by a monster.”

“We might be able to find out more once we get back to camp,” Annabeth said. “Where are you going?”

"Back to the subway station," I said, gesturing towards it with my thumb.

"Why?"

"To catch the LIRR to go to Long Island," I said.

"I was gonna get a taxi," she said.

"You have the money to pay for a taxi all the way to camp?" I asked.

"Yeah, here," she said, pulling a drachma out of her pocket.

"Annabeth, a taxi driver is not gonna take that," I told her.

She turned away from me to face the street, "Stêthi," she called in ancient Greek. "Ô hárma diabolês!"

'Stop, Chariot of Damnation!'

I was not super excited for whatever that was going to cause to show up.

She tossed the coin into the street, and it sank through the asphalt. Then a rectangular section of the street darkened and melted into bubbling pool. A car pushed up from underneath the liquid to rise to street level. It was a taxi, but smoke gray rather than New York's iconic yellow.

The passenger window rolled down and a grizzled old woman with hair down over her eyes stuck her head out. "Passage?" she mumbled.

"Two to Camp Half Blood," Annabeth told her.

"Three," I corrected, gesturing to Tyson.

"We're not taking him with us," she said.

The old lady also said, "We don't take his kind."

"Yes, we're taking him," I said. "I'll pay extra on arrival, three more drachma."

I didn't have drachma on me, but I was sure I could get some at camp.

"Done!" the woman screeched.

"You first Tyson," I said.

Tyson shot me a nervous look, but got into the backseat when I nodded to him. That left me the middle seat with the stupid hump in the floor so I had to squish the duffel bag between my legs and put my backpack in my lap, but at least Annabeth and Tyson weren't next to each other. I checked for a seatbelt, but there was only a large back chain.

I turned to the driver to ask her about a real seatbelt, except there wasn't one driver, there were three old ladies in the front bench, all with stringy gray hair and bony hands.

"Long Island! Out of metro fare bonus, ha!" the driver said before slamming on the accelerator.

"Look out, go left!" the lady in the middle screeched.

"Well, if you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could see that!" the driver snapped.

I turned to Annabeth who had a death grip on the door. We definitely should have taken the LIRR.

The car jolted up over the curb before screeching around the corner.

"Please, tell me one of you can see," I said. Could a skateboarding helmet help in a car crash?

"I can," shouted the lady farthest from the wheel.

"This is what you wanted to take to camp?" I asked Annabeth.

"It's the fastest way," she argued.

"Fast doesn't matter if it takes our heads off," I said.

"Don't feel good," Tyson moaned.

"If you gotta puke, do it out the window," I told him.

The three women were all fighting each other in the front seat, one shouting for a tooth and another for an eye. We swerved hard onto Delancey street then we accelerated towards the Williamsburg Bridge. Then I watched, horror struck, as one of the ladies reached into driver’s mouth to rip a single, yellow incisor out of her mouth.

“’Ive it back, ‘ive it back!” the driver shouted, swerving towards the side of the bridge.

Tyson groaned.

“Uh, in case anyone was wondering,” I snapped at the women. “We’re all about to die!”

“Don’t worry,” Annabeth said. “The Gray Sisters know what they’re doing. They’re really very wise.”

Maybe she was trying to convince herself, but it certainly wasn’t convincing me seeing as we were at the edge of a bridge a hundred and thirty feet above the East River.

“Yes, wise!” the woman who’d gotten the tooth claimed. “We know things!”

“Every street in Manhattan!” the driver crowed.

“The location you seek,” the middle woman said.

Both of her sisters screeched at her. “Quiet! He didn’t even ask yet!”

“What location?” I asked even though the only place I was looking for was Camp Half Blood.

“Nothing,” the middle sister said. “It’s nothing!”

“Tell me.”

“No,” they all screamed at me.

“Last time we told, it was horrible,” the middle one said.

“Took years to find the eye again,” the driver complained. “Speaking of which, give it back!”

She whacked the sister on the right on the back of her head, and the eye came out of her head with a sickening pop. She fumbled for the eye, batting it backwards so it bounced off the ceiling and landed in my lap. I jumped in disgust, but automatically caught it as it nearly rolled off.

“Nasty,” I said. It did not feel like peeled grapes at all.

The driver yanked the wheel the other way, and I nearly dropped the eye. The taxi hurtled towards Brooklyn, faster than any normal car could go.

“Give it back!” the sister on the right demanded.

“Not until you explain,” I said. “What’s the location?”

“No time, accelerating!” the middle sister cried.

Buildings and cars and whole neighborhoods zipped past in streaks of color. We had already passed Brooklyn, heading into Long Island.

“Percy, they can’t find our destination without the eye. We’ll just keep accelerating until we break into a million pieces,” Annabeth warned me.

“They should have thought about that before losing their eye then,” I said. “Tell me the location or the eye goes out the window into traffic!”

“No!” all three sisters wailed.

“I’m rolling down the window,” I said, motioning to Annabeth who didn’t move.

“30, 31, 75, 12!” the middle sister broke first.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“That’s all we can tell you, now give us the eye!” the driver shouted.

I tossed the eye to the driver so it landed in her lap. She scooped it up and shoved it into her socket. She then slammed on the brakes, and the taxi spun several times in a row before squealing to halt in the middle of the farm road at the base of Half Blood Hill.

Nobody did or said anything.

Then Tyson belched. “Better now.”

“Tell me what those numbers mean,” I demanded of the sisters.

“No time, we need to go,” Annabeth said, tugging me from the taxi.

She wasn’t looking at me. I followed her gaze up to the crest of the hill. The camp was under attack.

There were two bronze bulls the size of elephants at the top of the hill facing off against ten campers in full sets of armor. Well, one bull was facing nine of them, and the other faced a single camper.

Once we were all out of the taxi, the Gray Sisters peeled away. They didn’t even wait for their extra payment.

“Oh, no,” Annabeth said as one of the bulls started belching fire at the group of campers. They all scattered away from the flames in every which direction.

"Stay here," I told Tyson as I slapped the face of my watch, which ground to a halt only halfway open, and charged up the hill to support the solo fighter. I popped the cap off Riptide. I wasn't going to miss a chance to stab a mythical bull.

As I got closer, I heard the solo fighter shouting, "Toro, toro!"

The bull charged at him, and he deftly dodged to the side. The bull was now farther from its companion and the camp. The fighter jogged to gain ground on the bull and continue to lead it away, keeping his head facing the bull the whole time.

I tried to stay low and come around the backside of the bull. I searched its body for gaps in its armor skin. Someone had already lost have a spear to a joint near its hip. Would Riptide fair any better being all metal rather than having a wooden shaft?

There was a wink of light then an arrow ripped through the head of the bull before thudding into the ground. There was an ugly crunching sound as the bull came to a stop, and its head succumbed to gravity, hanging limply from its neck.

"Hey, I had it," the fighter complained, raising his spear and shield in complaint.

Apollo landed from somewhere — the sky? —  and grabbed hold of the bull by one of its silver horns. Then he started dragging it behind him back towards camp. It scored the ground from its weight.

I moved out of his way. He didn’t look at me at all, instead completely focused on the second bull. He was hard to even look at, like the night light level glow he normally gave off had hardened into the bright light of a flashlight shining directly into your eyes.

"Stand back," Apollo said, and the other fighters quickly retreated from the remaining rampaging bull.

Then Apollo flung the first bull into the second like it took no more effort to throw than a ball in shot put. The bulls collided with a thunderous crash. Neither so much as twitched afterwards. Apollo marched up to the bulls, setting a hand on top of them. Then the light warped and he and the bulls disappeared.

"I guess that's one way to handle recycling," I said as I put the cap back on Riptide. I hit the button on my watch, but the shield refused to go all the way back into the wristwatch.

I turned around to check on the solo fighter. He pulled off his helmet.

"Lysander!"

He looked better than at Christmas. He had a healthier tan though he still had some darkness under his eyes. His hair had been cut shorter, more work appropriate than the grown out look he’d been sporting before.

"Hey," Lysander said with a grin. "When did you get here?"

"Just now," I said, running for him. I hugged him even though he was wearing a metal cuirass. He didn’t smell of cigarette smoke anymore. "I thought you weren't coming this year."

Lysander hugged me back. "I wasn't, but Dad asked me to come so here I am."

"He asked you to come?" I asked, pulling back.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm not here as a camper. I'm here for border patrol."

"Border patrol?" I asked. "What does camp need a border patrol for?"

Lysander turned and gestured towards Thalia's pine tree.

The pine’s needles had all turned a sickly yellow. The ground beneath it was carpeted with brown, dead ones. From a bullet sized hole in the center of the trunk, green sapped oozed out.

I felt a chill go down my spine. Thalia’s tree was dying.

Someone had poisoned it.

“Let me guess,” I said. “This happened yesterday when we started getting this heatwave.”

“No, from what I’ve understand about the time line, that happened closer to a week ago,” Lysander said.

“Then what happened yesterday?” I asked.

“Tantalus was named activities director,” he said.

“But Chiron’s activities director,” I said. “He’s been training heroes for three thousand years.”

Lysander grimaced. “I know, but he got blamed for the tree being poisoned, and Argus was fired, too.”

“And Tantalus, he’s some other guy, right, like his parents just had horrible taste in names? He’s not the guy that literally served his own son to the gods to eat, right?” I asked.

“Nope, exact same guy, plucked straight from the fields of punishment,” he said. “You can see why Dad is maybe a little bit upset about the situation.”

“A little?” I asked. “I’m amazed something isn’t literally on fire right now.”

“You don’t know that something isn’t,” Lysander said.

“Good point,” I said.

“Percy!”

I turned to find Tyson struggling to get over the border to us.

“Is that a baby Cyclops trying to get into camp?” Lysander asked.

“Yes, that is my younger half brother, Tyson,” I said. “He was in a class with me all year, and I didn’t figure out he was a Cyclops until like an hour ago.”

“That’s…new. I didn’t know Cyclops could go to school,” he said. “You also need to get your eyes checked. How many fingers am I holding up?”

He switched his spear to his shield hand to hold up two fingers in front of my face.

“Two, can you just invite him into camp or whatever?” I asked, shoving his hand down.

“You want me to invite a Cyclops into camp?” he asked. “You know they eat people, right? A number of campers have had nasty run ins with them. Hell, Annabeth looks like she’s gonna puke.”

Annabeth stood over with the other campers who had been fighting the second bull. She did look kinda pale, warily watching as Tyson trying to break through the border, as did all of the other campers.

“He’s gonna start crying if we don’t let him in,” I said. “And Tyson doesn’t eat people. He’s been around other people all school year. I can take care of him, I swear.”

Lysander sighed. “This is a horrible idea.”

“Percy,” Tyson whined miserably as he pressed up against the invisible barrier that protected the camp.

Lysander shook his head. “Alright, I, Lysander Sherburn, give Tyson permission to enter camp.”

Tyson nearly fell to the ground as the border gave way underneath his hands. He righted himself and joined me and Lysander. He stood behind me, grabbing hold of the back of my shirt like he could hide from the other campers when he was a foot taller than me.

“Yeah, this is gonna go over just great,” Lysander said.

“I said, I can—,”

Tyson tugged on my shirt.

“What?” I asked him, turning towards him.

He pointed up.

I tilted my head back.

Sitting right above Tyson’s head sat a little holographic green trident exactly like the one that had hovered over my head a year earlier.

“That’s Daddy’s trident,” Tyson said happily.

“Yep, it definitely is, Big Guy,” I said then turned to Lysander. “Don’t worry. I’m going to be blaming my father for everything.”

“Normally, I would absolutely not recommend that plan of action, but this time, I’m all for it,” he said, then pointed up to the trident. “That is now the only thing saving our backsides.”

Chapter Text

Everything was subtly off at camp. The Big House and the cabins looked the same as they had the year before with the snow melted and the little balls of fire removed, but there weren’t any campers hanging around or playing volleyball. The grass had yellowed in the heat rather than remaining perfectly green with only the strawberries spared. Weapons were stockpiled at the side of the forge. At the exact center of camp was a large mass of white canvas with large wooden frames placed out on the ground.

“So are you like Argus’s replacement or something?” I asked Lysander as we descended from the hill. Tyson kept close to my shoulder, but his head was on a swivel, looking around at everything. The other campers were heading down the hill as well, but keeping clear of Tyson.

“One of them,” he said. “Dad’s still not allowed to interfere aside from the automatons, but he’s allowed to give quests so he’s going around trying to see who’s willing and available to help out with protecting the border.”

“How does that work if it’s a quest?” I asked. “Did you have to talk to the Oracle to stay here?”

He chuckled. “No, nothing like that. Any god can ask us to do stuff for a reward, and I was not about to pass up an opportunity to get a Stradivarius.”

“What’s a Stradivarius?” I asked.

 Lysander put a hand over his heart like I’d just delivered horrible news. "You did not just ask that."

"What?" I asked. "Is it like super fancy or something?"

"They're only the best string instruments ever made," he said. "There's supposedly only 650 surviving ones, but I know dad's hoarding some more of them. I also made sure to specify a violin so he wouldn't pawn off a cello on me that I can't use." 

“Okay,” I said, leaving him to his fancy, fancy violin. “Are you still staying in the cabin and everything?”

He shook his head. “We’re not campers so we’re not counselors or staying in the cabins. We’ve been staying in the Big House for now, but we’re working on getting the tents set up. We’re trying to keep everything as normal as possible for you guys.”

“Who’s we?” I asked.

“So far it’s me, Lexie, Helga, and Tracy though Brianna, the new cabin five head counselor, has been helping out,” he said. “But more are supposed to be coming soon.”

“Who’s Lexie?” I asked.

Before he could answer, one of the fighters from the other group shouted out, “Nice work, Canary!”

“That’s Lexie,” Lysander said as she jogged towards us. Annabeth followed after her.

“Why’s she calling you canary?” I asked.

“For his singing voice, of course,” she said, grinning as she pulled off her helmet. She already had her bow unstrung and slung over her shoulder. “You’ve gotta be Percy.”

Annabeth hung back slightly, shooting Tyson a wary look.

“How do you know my name?” I asked her.

“You think I don’t talk to my baby brother?” she asked as she put her arm around Lysander’s shoulders even though he was half a head taller than her.

“I’m two years younger than you,” he said. “I’m hardly your baby brother.”

“Oh, are you the math tutor sister?” I asked.

“That’s what you told him I was?” she asked Lysander. She scrubbed her hand roughly over his hair. “Way to undersell me, bro. I’m a grad student for applied mathematics at Columbia. I’m like the best math tutor there is. After Dad, of course.”

Lysander ducked out from underneath her arm, trying to fix his hair even though there was no longer much hair to fix.

“Of course,” I said, though I was not sure where the math stuff was coming from for Apollo.

“So who wants to explain this whole Cyclops claimed by the sea god situation?” she asked, giving a pointed look towards Tyson.

“Hi,” Tyson said, raising his hand in a half hearted wave towards her.

“Dad sent him to me without telling me anything about it, and that’s as much as I know,” I said.

“He wouldn’t let us leave without him,” Annabeth added.

Lexie sighed. “We’re going to have to go to the Big House.”

“Uh, is there any possible way we could not do that?” I asked. “Can’t we just stick him in cabin three and call it a day?”

“Absolutely not,” Lexie said. “I don’t care who or what any god claims, if any monster is staying in camp, he has to be accounted for. I do not want to be the one explaining everything to Dad if for any reason he ended up hurting a camper.”

I sighed, rubbing a hand over my face. “Okay, but is there any way we could do this without talking to Mr. D?”

“Percy, why do you not want to talk to Mr. D?” Lysander asked.

I pressed my lips together. I looked to Annabeth, but she shook her head.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“Uh, well, I maybe invited Will, Annabeth, and Beckendorf to stay at my table when I was here that long weekend last winter, and when Mr. D told them to go back to their own tables, I maybe, might have told him to ask Phoebus if he had a problem with it,” I explained.

“Except he didn’t literally say Phoebus,” Annabeth said.

Both Lexie and Lysander stared at me. Even Tyson looked nervous.

“Wow, okay, you didn’t tell me he had a death wish,” Lexie said, turning to Lysander.

“I left him alone for like five minutes,” Lysander said as he ran his hand down his face.

“Look, kid, I know Dad doesn’t like it when Grandfather involves anyone else in the running of camp, but he and Mr. D are brothers,” Lexie said. “They’ve known each other for longer than you can comprehend. However much Dad likes you, that’s nothing compared to the millenia they’ve had together and will have together long after we’re all dead.”

“I know,” I said, but the words were sour on my tongue.

“Okay, maybe just let me handle the talking,” she said then started walking towards the Big House.

“Wait, can I at least drop my stuff off?” I asked, pointing to my bag. “Wait, where’s my skateboard?”

“I think you left it on the road,” Annabeth said.

“You go to the cabins and I’ll go grab his skateboard,” Lysander told Lexie. “When did you get a skateboard?”

“Last fall,” I told him.

“Alright, I’ll be back,” he said, jogging back up the hill.

Everyone else made a detour to cabin three so I could drop my things off. Lysander managed to catch up to us there, and I set my skateboard down by the doorway to be easily accessible later.

“Now to the Big House,” Lexie said, motioning for us all to head out.

As we approached the house, Chiron came down from the porch with packed saddlebags on his back. Well, the horse half of his back anyways.

“Pony,” Tyson said excitedly, pointing at him.

“Tyson,” I hissed at him.

“I beg your pardon?” Chiron asked. “Who allowed this Cyclops over the border?”

“Chiron,” Annabeth said, running up to Chiron to give him a hug as best she could. “You’re not leaving, are you? Getting fired doesn’t mean you have do go, does it?”

Her voice was shaky, and her eyes had gone all watery.

Chiron ran a hand over her hair and gave her a kindly smile. “I’m afraid so. The king was most upset that the tree he’d created from the spirit of his daughter had been poisoned. Mr. D had to punish someone.”

“Besides himself, you mean,” I growled.

Lexie frowned, and Lysander took hold of my arm, pulling me closer to his side.

“But this is crazy,” Annabeth said to Chiron. “You couldn’t have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia’s tree! This is your home. Even if you’re not activities director, you should get to stay.”

“Nevertheless, some in Olympus do not trust me now given the circumstances,” Chiron told her.

“What circumstances?” I asked.

Chiron’s face darkened, but he didn’t answer.

“Pony?” Tyson asked again.

“My dear young Cyclops, I am a centaur, not a pony,” he said to him sharply, making Tyson clam up. “What are you even doing in camp?”

“Father sent him to me and claimed him once we crossed the border,” I said.

“How unusual,” Chiron mused. “But the sea god has always had a bit of a knack for being unpredictable.”

“Chiron,” I said since we were getting off topic. “What about the tree? What happened? Why are they blaming you?”

“The poison used on Thalia’s pine is something from the Underworld. Some venom I have never seen before. It must have come from some monster deep in the pits of Tartarus.”

“Then we know who’s responsible. Kro—,”

Lysander’s grip on my arm tightened, and Chiron gave me a warning look.

“Do not invoke the titan lord’s name,” Chiron said sternly. “Not here, not now.”

“But last summer, he tried to cause a civil war in Olympus! This has to be his doing. He could get Luke to do it,” I insisted.

“Perhaps, but the reality is I was unable to prevent the attack, and I cannot cure the effects either. The tree only has a few weeks left to live,” he said. “The entire valley is feeling the shock of the venom. The magical borders are deteriorating. Even Phoebus alone may not be enough to bring it back.”

“Alone?” I asked. “What would he need to be able to fix it? We can find it and bring it to him.”

“Okay, let’s chill on the dangerous adventures,” Lysander said. “You weren’t really even supposed to be going on one last year.”

“Percy,” Chiron said, resting a hand on my shoulder. “I told your mother I didn’t want you coming here at all this summer as it’s far too dangerous. Now that you’re here, I insist you remain and train. Do not leave camp.”

“I wasn’t ever going to stay home all summer,” I said. “I can help. I can’t just let the borders fail and the camp be overrun.”

“You cannot allow yourself to be baited into hasty action,” Chiron said as he removed his hand and stood upright. “You may have succeeded last year, but you came very close to falling into the titan lord’s trap.”

Then he looked around from Lexie to Lysander to Annabeth and even spared a glance for Tyson. “Stay with Percy. Keep him safe.”

“I can handle myself,” I said, but everyone ignored me to nod to Chiron, even Tyson who hadn’t been a camper for half an hour yet. I huffed. I’d cross my arms, but Lysander was still holding onto me like he thought I was some five year old that’d run directly into traffic.

“Good,” he said. “Perhaps in time my name will be cleared, but until then, I will go visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. It’s possible they may know of a cure that I have forgotten over the course of time. In any event, I will stay in exile until the matter is resolved, one way or another.”

Annabeth stifled a sob, quickly swiping her hand underneath her eyes.

“There, there, child,” Chiron said, petting her head. “I must entrust your safety to Mr. D and the new activities director.”

“That’s another thing,” I said. “How’d Tantalus of all people get your job?”

Chiron looked down at me. “It’s better I not say. I must go, but I will contact your mother, Percy, and let her know you arrived safely.”

I frowned up at him. Why was it better he didn’t say?

Chiron took off galloping towards the border, in the same direction Grover had gone the year before.

Wait. Grover. I’d totally forgotten to tell Chiron about my dream and who knew when I would see him again, but it was too late to be able to call him back.

“It’s alright,” Lexie said, moving over to Annabeth’s side. “It’s not forever. We’ll see him again. Dad will make sure everything gets cleared up.”

Annabeth sniffed loudly and scrubbed at her eyes. “I’m fine,” she insisted even though her voice was watery.

The conch horn for dinner sounded.

“Alright, let’s get to the pavilion,” Lysander said. “We can talk to Mr. D there.”

“Great,” I grumbled.

“We’ll be a second,” Lexie said, putting her hands on Annabeth’s shoulders. “We’ll catch up.”

“Alright,” Lysander said.

He kept a hold of my arm all the way up to the pavilion, and Tyson followed us. He kept asking about different buildings, but he finally stopped after the third time I told him I’d explain later.

Lysander brought us straight to the table that Mr. D sat at with his kids and the naiads and dryads.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete,” Mr. D drawled.

“Percy Jackson,” I corrected through gritted teeth. “Sir.”

Mr. D took a sip of his Diet Coke. “Whatever.”

Instead of Chiron sitting beside him, there was a unhealthily pale and skinny man in a threadbare orange prisoner’s jumpsuit with a 00001 stitched over the pocket. He had worse undereye circles than Lysander had had in the dead of winter, dirty fingernails, and gray hair that looked like it had never been cut correctly, just hacked off at some point and allowed to grow out. His eyes were the creepiest, desperate and frustrated and hungry. Never a good combination.

“This boy,” Dionysus said to him, “You need to keep a close eye on. Poseidon’s child, you know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

Lysander tightened his grip on my arm again.

Mr. D smirked at me.

“Ah, that one,” the skinny man said, like he was familiar with me. “I am Tantalus, on special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble.”

“Trouble?” I asked.

Mr. D’s smirk spread into a grin.

“Yes, like you caused last winter,” Tantalus said. “My Lord Dionysus specifically chose me to prevent such a thing from happening again.”

I blinked at him then turned back to Mr. D. It took everything I had not to snap something extremely impertinent at him. He’d seriously chosen a guy who had fed his son to the gods to punish me? To punish the camp as a whole? Did he even care that it was his half sister’s spirit that was dying right now?

I clenched my fists so tight my fingernails dug into my skin and gritted my teeth so hard I swore I could hear them creak.

“What’s this Cyclops doing here?” Mr. D asked, gesturing with his coke can towards Tyson. “This isn’t the arena.”

“My father sent him to me,” I told him. “He claimed him once he stepped over the border.”

“It’s true,” Lysander added.

Mr. D looked Tyson over then scowled.

"Go sit down," Mr. D said, gesturing towards table three.

"Come on, Tyson," I told him as Lysander let me go.

"Oh, no," Tantalus said. "The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."

"Him," I corrected. "His name is Tyson Nerantzis. I think my father made it clear how he would like his son to be treated."

"His son is a Cyclops," Tantalus said.

"I saw the trident myself," Lysander said. "The Earthshaker has claimed him. I have no desire to offend the sea god, especially concerning one of his children."

"But I'm sure you can ask him yourself if you think he's been unclear," I said to Mr. D, as politely as I could make myself to him of all people.

"I told you to sit down," Mr. D said, glowering at me as he gestured more violently to table three. "Both you and your little half brother."

I turned away from him, heading for the table, but Lysander put his hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry, Tyson, I need to borrow Percy for a minute," Lysander said, a little too brightly.

Tyson looked to me.

"It's fine, go sit down," I told Tyson.

Tyson nodded and took a seat nervously at the table.

Lysander led me a little aways from the pavilion. "What are you thinking?" he asked me quietly.

"I didn't do anything wrong," I insisted, trying to keep my voice down. "He can't treat Tyson that way."

"Yes, he can," Lysander said. "Tyson is not a demigod. He's a Cyclops. This camp is not meant for him. You cannot go around antagonizing Mr. D in general, but it’s especially not worth it over this."

"Don't give me that," I said. "I know Phoebus tells you guys not to listen to Mr. D."

Lysander scowled, looking a lot like his grandfather when he wanted to blast me with lightning last summer. "He tells the youngest ones that because the worst they can do is be obnoxious, and the king will forgive them because they are his grandchildren. You are not one of us."

"What are you—,"

"Listen to me," Lysander said, setting both hands on my shoulder. His eyes were boring into me, bright blue like Apollo's. "I'm telling you this to keep you safe. The king did not send you to retrieve his bolt last summer. He sent his own children, immortal gods, not his demigod grandchildren. They failed, and the king blamed your father. Your father has immortal children just as my grandfather does, but they need permission to enter other domains like the Underworld. His only choice was to rely on you because he has no older children due to the oath he swore. He's even worse off than the Lord of the Underworld who at least married the king’s daughter.”

Lysander sighed. "You need to be more careful. You have no insurance besides how likable you make yourself to the other gods which is never solid ground. Your father knows it seeing as he sent you a baby Cyclops for protection."