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Chapter Text

Poseidon sighed heavily with his head leaning on his fist. 'Another few hours and this solstice will be over and I won't have to see any of them for six more months.' But another few hours felt like torture.

Giving an imperceptible shake of his head, Poseidon tried to focus back on his brother's droning on one matter or another. Honestly, his first love was only ever his own voice. It was amazing his voice box hadn't up and left after a millennium. Glancing around the room, he saw that the other occupants were drifting themselves, which brought endless amusement to the god. Unfortunately, his brother also seemed to notice if his scowl was anything to go by. 

"Well," Zeus boomed, startling those who completely drifted off, "if you seem to find my disquisition so displeasing, why don't one of you do better."

"Happily," Poseidon muttered, causing Zeus's scowl to darken. Undeterred, Poseidon only rolled his eyes sitting up in his chair.

"Please, brother," Zeus seemed to hiss, "enlighten us."

Opening his mouth to say just what he thought of his brother's displeasing disquisition, Poseidon never got the chance to say the words resting on his tongue when a sound louder then thunder rang through the entire mountain. Bang! Bang! Ears ringing, Poseidon and Hades sent a withering glare to their younger brother only to be met with a look that clearly said, 'Don't try and blame me for this.'

"What in Gaea's name was that sound?" Hera shouted, regality forgotten as she couldn't hear the sound of her own voice. Lucky her.

"Perhaps we should check the mountain to make sure we are not under attack," Athena tried to reason, though her hands were still by her ears. And Ares's talent for vulgarity was not helping the matter. The brute.

Rising from their chairs, the Gods made to check their sanctuary when they heard a slight scuffle outside the great closed doors. Freezing where they were, they strained to listen and exchanged confused looks when they heard something that could have been... children?

"Ow! Connor, you're stepping on my foot!" a girl's voice shouted. Another sound that could have been a yelp followed along with a groan and another yelp.

"Nico watch where you're stepping!" another girl's voice yelled.

"Oh please! I'm nowhere near you!" a boy's voice answered, very annoyed.

"Will you two shut up already!" another girl's voice sounded, only to be met with more shouting.

Confusion mounting, Athena motioned for Apollo and Hermes, the two closest to the doors, to move into a defensive position each beside one of the regal openings. Taking their stances, the two gods shared a look and in unison, pulled open the doors, weapons at the ready only to find... children. Huh.

Laying on the floor were a handful of teenagers entangled with one another like a pile of silly string. Hearing the sound of the doors moving, their heads turned sharply, their shock evident with the realization of their new location settling in.

"Oh hell," a brunette girl muttered, grunting when a blonde girl elbowed her in the side.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise," Hermes said in both amusement and confusion.

"Yeah, you're telling us," one of the boys ground out from the bottom of the pile. "Now, if Travis would remove his elbow from my spleen!"

Making quick work of untangling themselves from the human pretzel they landed in, the teenagers stood tall in front of the fourteen gods.

A girl with blonde hair and stormy grey eyes and a boy with dark hair and eyes stood at the front of the group, assuming authoritative positions. "Hello, everyone. Hello, mother," the blonde girl said.

"Annabeth?" Athena questioned as she stared at the group in shock.

"And just what was so important that we were zapped to Mount Olympus without any warning whatsoever," Annabeth answered back, clearly trying to keep her voice in check.

Bristling at the display of disrespect, Zeus answered, "We were not the ones who summoned you, demigod."

Annabeth's face lost it's defiant expression, turning confused along with the other demigods. "You didn't... then who..."

A roar from the fire Hestia was tending silenced anyone's questions and a message was left behind when the blaze subsided. "Well, what could this be?" Hestia picked up the parchment and handed it to Athena. Unfolding the letter, the goddess's eyebrows climbed higher the more she read and after a prompting from her father she read aloud,

My Children,

A few events have transpired that I will say have greatly disappointed me. To give all of you a perspective on the lives of your children, I have taken the liberty of compiling a few stories of the adventures these young demigods have been on. I will not have any complaint and you may not leave this mountain until all the stories are finished. As parents, you have performed actions that are appalling to say the least to these demigods who have gone on dangerous quests to fix your mistakes. I hope you learn something about humility and family while listening to the ordeals.

Mother Rhea

The hall was silent after the reading of  Rhea's letter, gods and demigods in absolute shock. The silence being broken with "What the hell just happened?" curtesy of Zeus's son.

"Well, it seems as if we are being punished by our mother," Hades replied dryly, clearly unhappy with not being able to leave.

"Lovely woman grandma is," Nico muttered, yelping when his cousin elbowed him in the ribs.

"What stories are we supposed to be reading?" asked Hephaestus. The fired roared again in response and in it's place lay sixth books stacked on top of each other. Picking up the copies, Hestia handed them to Athena once more. 

"The first book is called The Lightning Thief," she said. 'Lightning thief? Could that mean...' Athena glanced quickly at the lightning bolt at her father's side then at Annabeth who gave a small shake of her head and looked away, refusing to answer her mother.

With a smack to his throne armrest, Ares said, "Why don't we get started already so we can get away from each other as fast as possible."

With a glare to the war god, Athena reluctantly agreed. "I believe Ares has a point, as moot as it seems," she said with an underlying hint of venom. Ares met her glare head on causing Zeus to sigh and say "Enough. Let us begin and finish this so Mother can let us leave."

"Who wants to read first?" Hestia asked calmly.

There was a moment of silence before Hephaestus's son, Charles Beckendorf spoke up, "I will."

Chapter Text

The fourteen gods settled into their thrones and seat by the hearth, while the demigods settled on the floor, staying close to each other to ease the hurt when they thought of the empty seat between Charles and Annabeth.

"Okay, the first chapter is," Charles started, then raised an eyebrow in amusement, "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher."

Thalia snorted, "Of course it would be a title like that. Only Jayden would have a title like that."

Charles took a deep breath and began with, "Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."

There was a grumble of agreement coming from the group of half-bloods, causing some of the gods to wince, and others to keep their composures, but feel their hearts give a lurch.

"If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life."

"That's...surprisingly good advice," Thalia said, blinking. "To late, but good advice." She grunted when Annabeth elbowed her, but it was worth it to see the small smile on Charles's face. He didn't do much smiling anymore.

"Being a half-blood id dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways." The half-bloods winced, and shudders ran through them when they thought of the oh, so happy quests.

"Being almost eaten, set on fire, strangled by the undead, drowned, falling from great heights, pissing off gods and monsters, and dueling with other half-bloods just to name a few," Jason grunted bitterly. Zeus tried to keep a straight face, but it felt like a pressure was weighing down on his chest. He looked over and saw his brothers having the same reaction.

"If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe none of this ever happened."

"Me too," Nico muttered, images of Bianca dancing through his mind, and an ache spreading through his chest making his breath hitch. Annabeth gave a small, sympathetic smile and rubbed his back.

"But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside,"

"And you're positive it's not gas," Travis deadpanned. His friends bit back a snort, but it came back full force when Katie hit him over the head with the book, producing a loud yelp from the Stoll brother.

"Thanks," Katie said, returning the book back to Charles. He gave a small smirk of amusement before turning back to the page he left off of.

"-stop reading  immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.

Don't say I didn't warn you."

Travis opened his mouth to say 'You didn't warn us', but the glare from Katie snapped his mouth shut faster.

"My name is Jayden Jackson.

I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding school student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Am I a troubled kid?"

"Yes," the demigods replied in unison. Poseidon rolled his eyes while Charles snorted.

"Yeah. You could say that."

Cue the laughter. "And she admits it," Chris said over the hyena impression Thalia and Nico were giving.

"I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when out sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan-twenty eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan  Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff."

"Stuff. Stuff, she says," Annabeth grumbled under her breath, leading to multiple amused looks.

"I know-it sounds like torture." Annabeth huffed and crossed her arms. "Most Yancy field trips were.

But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had high hopes.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a  scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had the awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep."

Annabeth's mouth dropped in indignation, and Charles couldn't help but laugh at the reaction. The Athena cabin leader looked delightedly surprised at the laugh, but was still appalled at Jayden's lack of academic interest. "Well, I'm glad someone is having a good time," she snapped good-naturedly.

"I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

Boy, was I wrong.

See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga  battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway."

The palace was filled with laughter at the demigod's school antics. Poseidon dropped his head in a hand and shook it in worry and amusement. 'Only my daughter.'

"And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim."

The laughter only got louder after that with some of the demigods fighting to catch their breaths. Charles shook his head at his girlfriend's stunts, the laughter a nice change from the pain of the not knowing where she was.

"How did she hit the wrong lever? Why did she hit a lever?" Leo questioned, lying back on the floor.

"And the time before that...Well, you get the idea.

This trip, I was determined to be good."

"And we'll see how long that lasts," Thalia said in amusement.

"All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he has some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you.You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria."

Grover cringed at the description, thinking that his cover wasn't as foolproof as he thought it would be. And he hid his face in his hands at the embarrassment waiting for him in the rest of the chapter.

" Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip."

The Stolls and Hermes wrinkled their noses at the part of the headmaster, "Well, that's no way to get through a field trip, how can you not embarrass or entertain yourself?" Connor asked in obvious displeasure.

Poseidon was displeased himself, not liking the way his daughter was being treated by the people at her school, but knowing there was nothing he could do about it now, he stayed silent. His grip on his trident tightening was the only sign that he wanted to blast someone with a geyser of water. Scalding water. And maybe an electric eel or two.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled. Ares and Clarisse perked up at the mention of a fight.

"Grover tried to calm me down. 'It's okay. I like  peanut butter.'

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

'That's it.' I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

'You're already on probation,' he reminded me. 'You know who'll get blamed if anything happens.' I almost snorted. It didn't matter if I got blamed if it meant Nancy quit messing with Grover, but I stayed back in my seat.

Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into."

'My pre-algebra teacher?' Annabeth thought to herself. She vaguely remembered hearing Jayden mention something about one of Hades's furies...posing as...her eyes widened in realization. Grey eyes sought out Charles and she knew the question she was trying to ask when he subtly nodded his head and continued reading. Oh, great.

"Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.

He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statutes and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years."

"Longer," Hephaestus said, making Charles's head snap to his father before going back to the book.

"He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to  Nancy half-way through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was the devil's spawn."

Athena and Hera snorted at that line, but quieted when they got glared at by Poseidon and the demigods.

"She would point her crooked finger at me and say, 'Now honey,' real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month."

Nico's eyes widened when he heard the line, "Now honey," because it sounded suspiciously like...he snapped to his father who was hunched in his chair with his eyes closed, a pained expression on his face. He clearly knew who the leather jacket wearing math teacher was too.

Chapter Text

Hello Everyone!

First I want to thank every single person who has commented and left a Kudos. I can't thank you enough for sticking with this story when it's been left alone for so long.

I didn't think writing this fic through, so I didn't make a plan for however many chapters, how long it would take, or even what the character responses would be. I am also getting pretty busy with some other stuff that I have going on that was short notice and will take a while to finish. So I will be putting this story on hold until further notice, but I will never abandon it. I will get back to this eventually when I have my ducks in a row. I feel awful for all the people who have waited for over a year for another chapter, but I hope you can forgive me.

Thank you so much for all of you kindness, patience, and understanding. And again, I am so sorry.