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Chapter Text

I helped Thalia to her feet, getting her arm over my shoulders. Lee broke off from the group and took her other side which was a big help as Thalia was taller than me and not doing much to support her own weight.

"Infirmary," Lee  said.

"Got it," I said, moving so we could pivot in the direction of the Big House.

"Let me through!" Annabeth shouted from somewhere in the crowd of people. People got shoved aside as she burst through the ring of onlookers. "Thalia!"

Thalia slowly looked over to her, still sort of out of it. "Who're you?"

Annabeth's face fell. "I'm Annabeth."

Thalia shook her head. "Annabeth's a little kid."

"Make way," Lee commanded, motioning for the people between us and the Big House to move it.

People backed away, opening up a corridor for us. We started walking down the hill.

"You've been out for a while," I told Thalia. "That is Annabeth."

"No, it's not," she said, stubbornly shaking her head. "Annabeth is seven."

"It's been—,"

"Wait until we get to the infirmary," Lee said, cutting me off.

"Okay," I agreed.

We made our way slowly across the grass as Thalia stumbled every so often. We kept her from falling over and kept moving. Annabeth stuck with us, wringing her hands as she watched on. Grover joined her, staying on Annabeth's far side from me.

"This is the Big House, the admin building for camp, but also where the infirmary is," Lee told Thalia as we climbed the steps of the porch. "You're going to be here for a few days before we get you moved into your cabin."

"Cabin?" Thalia asked.

"Where campers stay," Lee said. "You get assigned to them based on your godly parent so you'll be going into cabin one."

"Yay me," she said, completely unenthusiastic.

We helped her down the hall and into the infirmary. We got her set up on a bed, and Lee helped her get her boots off before letting climb under the covers. He left for the supply of nectar and ambrosia, and Annabeth and Grover stopped at the foot of the bed.

I tried not to, but I couldn't stop myself. I studied Thalia, and she did look like me. She had straight hair, but it was just as black as mine before I dyed it. Her eyes were blue, but their shape looked the same as mine. Her cheekbones, her nose, her jawline, all an echo of mine. There was no way she was physically close to the same age as Luke. Maybe if she'd been the right age and looked more like an adult rather than sixteen at most it would have been harder to see, but at only a couple years apart, she could pass for my sister.

My stomach twisted. Luke could definitely look at me and see her instead, this girl he thought was the prettiest and the best at everything. The girl Annabeth herself said he had made a little family with.

It was good I'd dyed my hair a different color.

"Grover, you're here," Thalia said, smiling even though she didn't sound too enthusiastic with all her confusion being back in human form.

"Yeah, I made it," he said. "How are you feeling?"

"Run over," she said then cast Annabeth a suspicious look. "Why are you still here?"

"I'm Annabeth, Annabeth Chase. I know I’m older, but I’m still me," Annabeth said. "I want to make sure you're okay."

"No, you're not Annabeth," Thalia said, shaking her head. "You're too old."

"She isn't too old. It’s the other way around. You’re too young," Lee said, offering her a square of ambrosia first. "Eat this, and we’ll explain."

Thalia cautiously took it from him, nibbling a corner. Her eyes went wide then she shoved the whole thing in her mouth.

"You were turned into a tree by your father to keep you from dying," Lee said while her mouth was full. "It's been around seven years since then. Annabeth's obviously grown up in that time. It seems like you weren't completely frozen while you were a tree so you've aged some too, but you’re still not as old as you should be."

"What're you," she said, but stopped as she dribbled out crumbs. She covered one hand with her mouth and brushed the crumbs off her chest with the other. She froze, hand on her sternum.

She swallowed slowly. "I want a mirror."

Lee nodded, heading to the supply stash and coming back with the mirror they used to show kids the injuries they had in harder to see areas. He handed it over to Thalia, and she held it up to her face.

"That's not—I don't—," she lowered the mirror, squinting. "Annabeth?"

"Yeah," Annabeth said, taking a step towards her bed. "It's me."

Thalia stared at her, searching her face. "But where's Luke? If you’re here, he should be here."

Annabeth's face hardened. Grover shifted on his feet.

"He deserted," I said to spare Annabeth from having to say it.

Annabeth looked on the verge of tears, and Grover flinched. Thalia turned and glared at me.

"I didn't ask you," she snapped. "What the hell does deserted even mean? He wouldn't leave us."

"He—,"

"Hold your horses," Lee said, loudly and firmly but without yelling. "Drink your nectar and then we can discuss the situation."

Thalia scowled as she took the glass he offered to her. She chugged it, letting out a heavy breath once she'd finished it and swiping the back of her hand over her mouth. "Tell me."

"You know your grandfather is the crooked one?" Lee asked.

"You mean Kronos?" she asked.

"Don't use his name," he said. "Names have power, and right now, the crooked one is gathering his to crawl out of Tartarus and destroy Olympus."

Thalia looked between us. "Are you serious? I'm supposed to believe that?"

"Yes," Lee said. "And he recruited Luke to do it. Last year, he stole your father's lightning bolt and the helm of the Lord of the Underworld. Percy had to return them, and Luke tried to kill him for it. This summer, he poisoned your tree to weaken the camp and send someone to get the Golden Fleece. He tried to get it back to raise himself, but Clarisse brought it here which is how you're even a person again."

Thalia glanced over to me then looked back to Lee. "No, that's not possible. Luke wouldn't do that. He couldn’t."

"He was brainwashed by the crooked one," Annabeth said. "That's the only reason he's done it."

I bit my tongue.

"He doesn't seem to think so," Thalia said, gesturing towards me.

"The crooked one didn't make him hate his father," I said, crossing my arms. "No one brainwashed him into that."

Thalia frowned.

Grover cleared his throat. "It's good to have you back, Thalia."

"Yeah, sure," she said then, "Thanks, Grover."

"How are you feeling now?" Lee asked. "Any pain?"

Thalia shook her head. "I'm better now, just tired."

"Alright, we'll keep you on bed rest for now and if you're feeling better tomorrow, you'll be free to go," he said.

The door to the infirmary opened, and we all turned towards Chiron. "I have sent everyone back to their cabins with the promise of an update at breakfast. I believe it is best if we speak and ensure we're on the same page, Thalia."

Thalia treated him to a skeptical look. "You're Chiron, right? The guy who trained all those heroes?"

"Yes, that's me," he said.

"She's had nectar and ambrosia, and we told her about the crooked one and Luke," Lee said as he picked up the dirty glass.

"I can take it from here," Chiron said, moving towards Thalia's bed.

"Can I stay?" Annabeth asked.

Chiron looked to Thalia.

"Yeah, sure," she said.

"Alright, the rest of us will skedaddle," Lee said, motioning me and Grover towards the door.

I ignored Grover as we left the infirmary. I followed Lee to the kitchen rather than heading outside like Grover.

"Is she really okay?" I asked.

"As far as I can tell. There's not really a protocol for coming back from a tree, but I can pray to Dad, see if he knows anything," Lee said as he quickly washed the glass. He set it on the drying rack then turned to me. "How are you?"

"Fine, why?" I asked.

Lee shrugged. "New cousin, another Big Three kid."

"She's your aunt," I pointed out.

He treated me to a stern look. "I'm not Annabeth's friend."

I shrugged, but it was awkward. "So?"

He sighed. "Well, like I said before, if you need to talk, I'm here even if I’m not Lysander."

I nodded. “Thanks, but I think I’m good for now. Thalia isn’t out to kill me so I think things are going pretty well.”

"Okay, that’s really optimistic. Maybe we should just focus on breakfast," he said, motioning for me to go first.

We walked together to the pavilion, but sat at our separate tables. The nymphs arrived with the food before Chiron arrived. We got all the way through making offerings and starting to eat before he appeared.

At the end of the meal, he stomped his foot. Everyone quieted.

"As you may be aware, the Golden Fleece returned Thalia Grace, daughter of the king, to us this morning. She is unaware of what has happened for the past seven years. I request that you be respectful and treat her like any other new camper."

I double checked table six. Annabeth hadn't ever shown up. I kept an eye out for her for the rest of the day between Greek lessons, practicing spears with cabin seven, and cleaning with cabins nine and twelve, but I didn't see her until after dinner as she headed back to cabin six.

I took off for the Big House. I walked casually into the infirmary as if I had every right to be there and wasn’t trying to do anything sneaky. Thalia sat up in her bed alone, her jacket now laying over the side table. No other kids had been sent to the infirmary, and no Apollo kids attended Thalia so we were on our own.

"Hey," I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Do all Poseidon kids have blue hair?"

"What?" I asked, thrown for a loop. "This is dyed. How would I have naturally blue hair?"

She shrugged. "I was a tree."

"Okay, for the record, my dad has black hair and so do I," I said, "but that's not what I'm here for. Did Chiron or Annabeth tell you about the prophecy?"

"What prophecy?" she asked.

"There's a big prophecy that a child of the Big Three will decide the fate of Olympus when they turn sixteen," I said. "Chiron thinks the crooked one may have wanted us to get the Fleece to have another shot at controlling the prophecy through you if he couldn’t get it for himself."

"What?" she asked. "Why would it be me? You're older than me."

"Uh, well," I said, scratching awkwardly as my arm. "I'm not. I’m turning fourteen, and you're like supposed to be nineteen.”

She scowled. "Gee, thanks for letting me know my age is all fucked up."

"I'm just trying to help—,"

"You're not," she snapped. "Get out."

I huffed. There was more to say, especially about Luke, but it wasn’t going to go down well if she was already yelling at me. "Fine, whatever."

I walked back out of the infirmary. I returned to my cabin, practicing guitar until it was time to grab my shower things to get ready for bed.

The next morning, I spotted Chiron leading Thalia over to cabin one. Later, she sat alone at table one in the pavilion.

"Go on," Mr. D prompted her, gesturing towards the giant brazier in the middle of the space.

Thalia stared blankly at him.

I grabbed my plate and went over to her. "Come on. You need to make an offering."

"An offering?" she asked.

"Yes, just take your plate and come to the fire," I said.

She looked skeptical, but followed me with her plate in hand.

"Just push off the best part of your food and say your dad's name either out loud or in your head," I told her quietly, conscious of all the eyes watching us.

"Do what?" she asked.

"Like this," I said.

I stepped up to the brazier and shoved a bit of the fruit salad off the plate and into the flames. "Poseidon."

Then I stepped back. "There. Do that with your dad or whichever god you feel like."

She stepped up to the flames and knocked some fruit off her plate, but she didn't say a name. She turned back to her table, bumping into my shoulder without apologizing as she passed. I rolled my eyes and went back to my own seat so table four could go.

I spotted Thalia eating before everyone had made their offerings, but I wasn't going to go over there to correct her. I waited until all of cabin seven had gotten through their offerings to start eating.

After breakfast, I headed to Greek lessons with Cam and Jessa.

"So are you, like, friends with Thalia now?" Jessa asked.

"No, we’re definitely not friends,” I said.

"What's she like?" Cam asked.

"I don't know," I said even though most of what she’d done so far was snap at me. "She's still getting used to not being a tree."

"Is she like you?" Jessa asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Like does she have any cool powers?"

"All I've seen her do is sit in a bed and eat breakfast, same as you," I said, picking up my pace to get into class early. We took our seats and everyone else filled in around us.

Thalia entered the classroom last. Everyone turned to look at her as she halted in the threshold.

"Hey, grab a free seat wherever you want," Lee said, gesturing to the class.

The only seats left were on the edges of the classroom. No one said anything as Thalia made her way around the room to sit down at an empty desk.

"Here you go," Lee said, handing her one of the battered leftover copies of the Iliad.

Thalia didn't say thank you as she took it, leaving it closed on her desk rather than opening.

Lee retreated to the front of the classroom to resume the lesson. I glanced over to Thalia between questions on the worksheet. She scowled down at her unopened copy as Lee went around the room helping the newer students. I caught him more than once trying to talk to Thalia, but she didn't seem to be responding.

Thalia was first out of the door at the end of the lessons. I told Cam and Jessa to go on ahead and joined Lee as we walked out of the classroom.

"Hey, did anyone happen to tell Thalia that she’s the counselor for her cabin, and she needs to go to the meetings on Sunday?" I asked.

"Okay, I knew I was forgetting something because I’m pretty sure no one did," he said. "Guess I'll have to do that once we get to lunch."

We walked up to the pavilion together, but Lee broke off to talk to Thalia before going over to table seven while I sat down at table three. Thalia at least got up to give her offering without prompting this time. I went up to the fire after her and took my seat again.

Cabin seven unfortunately had archery that afternoon. Lee helped me out for the first part, but I was on my own after that. I did everything as slowly as I could to focus on my form, but even with a lower draw weight, that was hard to hold for any length of time. My shots kept going all over the place.

After archery, we had cleaning the pavilion for our chore. At least I couldn’t accidentally hit anyone doing that.

"So," Castor said, appearing on my right as I scrubbed at something smeared into the table’s surface.

"Is Thalia cool?" Pollux asked from my other side.

"Do we like her?" Castor asked.

"She was just a tree, guys," I said with a huff. "Give her a minute."

"Fine," Castor said.

"We'll hold judgement," Pollux said.

"For now," Castor said.

"You guys get the gum this time," I said.

They both sighed heavily.

"Do you think we could intimidate Travis into not buying the stuff?" Castor said.

I tried not to laugh. “No, I really don’t think you could.”

“Ye of little faith,” Castor said.

“I think I’m with Percy,” Pollux said.

Castor made a shocked sound and clapped his hand to his chest. “Betrayed! By my own brother!”

“Hey,” Eugene said. “You guys actually doing your jobs?”

“Sir, yes sir,” both twins said, giving him a mock salute before getting to scraping off gum.

I went back to table scrubbing.

As we were putting supplies back, Annabeth showed up, Grover and Thalia trailing behind her.

“Hey, we were just going to go and show Thalia around more of camp,” she said with a wide smile. “Do you want to come?”

I glanced over to Thalia, who clenched her jaw, and Grover who looked nervous. "Nah, I'm good."

Annabeth’s smile faded. "Oh. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” I said. “You have fun though.”

I headed the opposite way they did, ignoring the disappointed look Annabeth shot me. I met Blackjack at the stables to practice riding some more. I also took a closer look at the smaller horses. I asked a few of them how they'd feel about little kids riding them, and they didn't have any concerns so long as someone helped the kids up into the saddle.

It probably wasn't nice, but I kinda spent the rest of the week avoiding Thalia. It's not like she was trying to talk to me either. The only time in the schedule we really shared was meals and Greek lessons and we sat at different tables and Lee helped her out extra during class time. It wasn’t really that hard.

By the end of the week, however, Annabeth wasn't having it as I continued to skip out on her trying to get Thalia integrated into camp.

"Why aren't you coming?" Annabeth asked, hands on her hips right after we had finished with our chores.

"I gotta test the skateboard for Beckendorf before we all head out," I said.

"It's not that big a deal," Beckendorf said. "I probably can't get another version done before the end of the summer anyways at this point."

I shot him a look for the betrayal. He shrugged.

"See? You can totally come," Annabeth said. "Let's go."

I sighed and resigned myself to my fate. I made sure to stand on the opposite side of Annabeth from Grover which conveniently also kept me away from Thalia who kept shooting me sharp looks.

Yeah, this was definitely going to be fun.

Chapter Text

"So we've gone over Arts and Crafts, the climbing wall, the amphitheater, the Big House, the arena and all the different combat areas, and what we can of the forest, and now with Percy, we can do the lake," Annabeth said like she had a whole itinerary for showing Thalia around a single camp.

"What, we need water boy's permission to get close to a lake?" Thalia asked.

"Water boy?" I asked, offended.

"If the shoe fits," she said, gesturing to my hair.

"You didn't have a problem with shark boy," Annabeth said.

"That's because it's actually cool and has a reason for it," I said. "I don't fetch water for people."

"Oh, you don't?" Thalia asked. "What do you do then?"

I faced her head on. "Helped you for one thing. I don't just do water based stuff."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I ride horses and I'm in a band," I blurted out.

"You're in a band?" Thalia asked, like she was trying not to laugh. "What's it's name then?"

I hesitated.

"Yeah, sure, you're in a really great band," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I am, all my bandmates are great," I insisted hotly, "but the name's kind of an inside joke. We're called the Something or Others."

Thalia laughed again, and even Annabeth looked underwhelmed.

"It works for what we play," I said. "You just don't get it."

"Oh yeah?" Thalia asked. "What do you play then?"

"Well, we started with the Strokes," I said, "but we're playing Fleetwood Mac and Cranberries for our other guitarist right now."

"Ugh, lame," Thalia said. "Never heard of the Strokes, but aside from Zombie there's nothing good from the Cranberries or Fleetwood Mac."

"How do you know the Strokes aren't any good if you haven't even heard them?" I asked. “And you seriously don’t like anything off Rumors? Nothing?”

"Unless they're punk, they're not any good," she said confidently.

“Sticking to one genre seems a little limiting. Is post-punk close enough?"

"What, like the Cure?"

"I don't know. I haven't actually listened to that much of the Cure, but I don't think they're that similar," I said.

"Then no, they’re not good," she said, turning away and walking ahead of the group.

I sighed in aggravation.

Annabeth gave me a look.

"What?" I asked.

"You could try to be nicer," she said.

I gestured towards Thalia's back. "She just called me water boy."

"She just got out of a tree," she said before turning away to catch up to Thalia.

I huffed and muttered under my breath, "She still knows what a water boy is."

I hung back as Annabeth showed Thalia around the lake, making sure to warn her to stay away from Apollo's swans. The naiads came up from the bottom to give me a wave which I returned.

Thalia looked from the naiads over to me then cocked an eyebrow.

"What?" I asked.

"They seem awful friendly," she said.

"Yeah because we're friends," I said. "Am I not allowed to hang out with the naiads now?"

She shrugged.

I looked over to Annabeth for an explanation, but she looked as confused as I did.

"Percy can breathe underwater so he talks to them sometimes," Annabeth explained. "It's been a pretty helpful ability."

"Oh, has it?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah, he survived falling out of the Gateway Arch and got us those pearls in Santa Monica, and well, generally pretty good to have in the Sea of Monsters," she said.

"Oh, great," Thalia said sarcastically. "His super fancy powers fix everything."

"Did I do something to you?" I snapped. "What is your issue with me?"

She scoffed and turned away, stalking off back towards the cabins.

"That's not an answer," I shouted after her.

"Percy," Annabeth said tentatively.

"What?" I asked. "She's being a dick when the only thing I've done is help her get to the infirmary and tell her about the prophecy."

"Have you considered that maybe that's part of the problem?" she asked, hands on her hips.

Grover took a step back, holding up his hands.

"That prophecy could be about either of us," I argued. "It's better that she knows."

"You think that but maybe she doesn't—,"

"Why wouldn't she want to know?" I asked. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"You've also been a dick about Luke—,"

"No, I haven't! I told the truth. Lying to her isn't going to help—,"

"She just got out of a tree!" Annabeth snapped at me.

"I know that!" I shouted back then lowered my voice. "I was there when it happened."

"No, you weren't!" she snapped, stomping her foot. "Luke was trying to save her as Grover and Phoebus got us over the border. That's the last thing that happened to her, and you're busy telling her that he betrayed her—,"

"He did, though," I said. "You want her to stumble across Luke outside of camp and have no idea what he's done? Who he's sided with?”

"No, but there are better ways to do it than just calling him a traitor and ignoring that the crooked one brainwashed him into leaving camp."

Grover looked back and forth between us as we argued, turning one way then the other.

"He didn't just grow up and leave camp, Annabeth," I said. "He tried to kill me, and it almost worked."

I pointed out to the pine tree still standing tall on Half-Blood Hill with the Golden Fleece in its boughs. "He tried to kill Thalia, too. If we'd failed to get the Fleece, she would have died along with the rest of camp."

"Percy," she said.

"But sure, he's just totally brainwashed and that's what made him try to kill his best friend or whatever the hell Thalia was to him," I said.

Annabeth looked like she was on the verge of tears.

I swallowed down my guilt. My voice came out hoarse. "Do whatever you want with Thalia now that you’ve got her back, but I'm not lying for Luke’s sake. You can’t make me."

I walked away, leaving Grover to comfort her.

I avoided Thalia and Annabeth and Grover for the rest of the day. I basically just had to stay out of the Arts and Crafts Center, I could get my paintings back later anyways, and the forest which Luke had kinda killed my interest in a year ago. Instead, I stuck by the stables and practiced flying with Blackjack. I was doing a little better handling higher altitudes.

I made sure to shower before bed after spending so long riding and in the stables. There was a knock on the cabin door a few minutes after I'd gotten back from the bathrooms. I opened it to find Thalia standing on my doorstep with her arms crossed.

"Hi?" I asked.

"Hey," she said then pushed her way into the room.

"You could ask to come in," I said, but didn't try to kick her out.

"We need to talk," she said, flopping down onto the couch.

"About what?"

"Luke," she said roughly. "Annabeth won't tell me the truth. Chiron's trying to coddle me. Seems like you might the only one who actually knows what’s going on who’ll give it to me straight.”

I swallowed. I carefully pulled the arm chair nobody had ever used over towards the couch and coffee table because sitting on the table was way too close to her. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," she said. "Why'd he leave? Is he really brainwashed?"

I frowned. "Like I said, he hated his dad long before the crooked one got to him. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but the messenger gave Luke the quest to get the golden apple like Heracles. Luke thought it was beneath him, but he failed and got this big scar across his cheek which pissed him off more and made him hate all of Olympus. Camp stopped giving quests to anyone after that."

Thalia stared at me for a few moments. Then she said, "He hated his dad for what he did to his mom."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I'd only talked to Hermes twice, but he didn't seem the type to hurt his partners.

"She...wasn't right," Thalia said, frowning. "She was really weird about Luke which was why he left home and how he found me. He blamed his dad for all of that and all the monsters after us."

I rubbed at my chin. How weird was weird? Did my mom count as being weird about me?

"Anyways, it was after he came back from the quest that he started hearing the crooked one in his dreams," I said, getting back on course. "It sounded like he told Luke everything he wanted hear so maybe he is a little brainwashed, but what he wanted to hear was about how stupid the gods were and how to destroy Olympus."

Thalia winced.

"Lee already told you about what he stole and how I had to go get it back. Luke tried to sabotage me with cursed shoes to drag me into Tartarus when I went to the Underworld which thankfully didn't work," I said.

Her face tightened and she wrapped her arms more tightly around herself. "And then what? You haven’t said how he left."

I cleared my throat which suddenly got tight and looked down at the ground. Why did this never get any easier? "He tricked me. Offered me canned coke which you can't get in camp and led me out into the forest alone. He trapped me with a pit scorpion and told me all about how much he hated his dad and Olympus before leaving. I got stung by the scorpion, and I would have died if Phoebus hadn't shown up to heal me."

I met Thalia's eyes. "You can't trust him anymore. If he ever tries to talk to you, you can't listen to him."

"Yeah, he tried to kill you, I get it," she said harshly, face twisting into a scowl.

I shook my head. "It's not just that."

"Then what else is there?" she snapped, leaning forward threateningly.

"He was recruiting for the titans. A lot of the guys in cabin eleven didn't come back here to follow Luke instead," I said. "He—,"

"What?" she asked when I didn’t continue. "Spit it out!"

"He tried to do the same thing to the girls," I said, avoiding her eyes. "Get them alone, give them gifts, he did it to Annabeth, too."

"Liar!" she shouted, jumping to her feet.

"I'm not," I said. "I'm trying to tell you that you can't trust him anymore. He's not safe, especially not for you."

"Why me especially?" she snapped, clenching her fists. There was a scent in the air, like a coming storm right before a lightning strike.

"He didn't forget about you," I said. "You're still important to him. He lost his shit nearly any time I brought you up. What do you think he'd do to get you back, to get you on his side again? Annabeth said you were like a family."

She looked stricken, the scent of a storm dissipating. "You don't know what you're talking about," she said coldly.

She turned and walked out of the cabin, slamming the door shut behind herself.

I sighed heavily and went straight to bed. Whether Thalia listened to me or not, at least I'd told her about the danger.

Unfortunately, I could not continue to avoid her with the counselors meeting coming up. I went in right after dinner like normal, walking with Castor since it was his turn to attend the meeting. We took our usual spot on the couch, greeting people as they came in.

Thalia came in with Lee, looking around the room and eying everyone up except for me.

“Alright everyone, this is Thalia,” Lee said, sweeping his arm around the room. “Thalia this is everyone.”

A few people waved to her.

“Have you met everyone yet?” he asked her.

She look around again before shaking her head.

He went around the room starting with our couch, though he hesitated on saying Castor’s name. Castor didn’t give him a reaction which made Lee look more nervous. He quickly moved onto Berenice.

We were already running out of seats so when Lee finished introductions, Thalia had to grab herself one of the folding chairs.

“Okay, so how are we with things with the younger group A?” Lee asked.

“We need a new name,” Brianna said with a sigh.

“We could use A1,” Thomas said.

“We’re not naming the kids after steak sauce,” Berenice said.

“1A then,” Brianna said. “We just need something shorter.”

“We could call them YA,” Kelsey said then laughed at her own joke.

“Well, it’s not the worst,” Reggie said.

“It’s as bad as the stake sauce,” Eugene said.

“Everyone in favor on 1A?” Lee asked, raising his hand.

Everyone except for Kelsey and Thalia raised their hands.

“Great, it’s now 1A and 2A for the two A groups,” Lee said. “But the class is going well?”

“I’m not sure how much they’re actually absorbing, but they are better behaved now,” Kelsey said.

“I think we should just do Aesop’s fables,” Thomas said. “I know we don’t have any copies right now, but it might make more sense to start with for younger kids than the Iliad, especially for reading rather than listening to it.”

“I second the Aesop’s fables, by the way,” Kelsey said. “If we can’t get it done this summer, we should have it ready for next.”

“Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I can talk to Chiron about it,” Lee said. “Anything else about the class?”

Kelsey and Thomas looked at each other. Thomas shook his head.

“Nah, that’s it,” she said with a nod.

“Okay, and in other news with the littler kids, we’re supposed to get the buoys for the lake soon, but it’s probably going to take longer with the helmets. Percy, did you ever end up talking to the horses?” Lee asked.

“Yeah, there’s a few of them that are okay with, but if we don’t have any helmets, maybe we should stick to canoing paired up with someone older depending on how long the buoys take,” I said.

“Would you want to help out with that?” Lee asked.

I shrugged. “I can. It’s not that big of a deal for me.”

“I’ll let you skip archery for it,” he said.

I laughed. “We don’t have archery that often.”

“The kids aren’t always on the lake either so it works out,” he said.

“He’s not allowed to skip my class though,” Thomas said. “He still needs work on his shield.”

Castor put a hand over his mouth, trying to muffle his laughter. Thalia looked slightly amused, too.

I shot him a look before I said, “I’m trying. I’ve gotten better.”

Thomas made a face. “Better doesn’t mean you’re good.”

I sighed because he wasn’t technically wrong.

“Anything else for the kids?” Lee asked.

No one said anything.

“I think we’ve covered it,” Opal said.

“Okay, do we have have everyone picked out to decide the design for the beads for this summer?” Lee asked.

“Yeah, I already picked new people out for it,” Eugene said. “We’re meeting tomorrow afternoon and then we’ll start working on making them all.”

“Excellent,” he said. “Any other topics we need to cover?”

Malcolm timidly raised his hand.

“Yes, what is it Malcolm?” Lee asked, offering him a friendly smile.

“I just wanted to check if everything was all settled with Thalia,” he said quietly, glancing at her then looking away again.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “I just thought you might join our cabin for activities like Percy did with cabin seven, but I haven’t seen you.”

Thalia glared over at me.

“We decided against it since there’s not that much time left. If you guys really want her with you instead, we can discuss it next summer,” Lee said.

“Okay, I just wanted to check,” Malcolm said, trying to shrink down in his seat.

“Is that everything to discuss? Anyone have anything else?” Lee asked the room at large.

A few people shook their heads, and no one brought anything up.

“Alright, guess we can wrap up a little early then,” Lee said then looked over to Travis then Ismini. “Though, actually, have you guys been talking to the new kids? They all understand they’re staying year round and everything’s okay with them?”

“Uh,” Travis said, stalling, and Ismini grimaced. “It’s not been great. They don’t seem super interested in talking to me, but I’ve caught a few of them crying.”

“Yeah, it’s not so good in our cabin either,” Ismini agreed. “More than a few of them have begged to go back home. I don’t really want to tell them exactly how dangerous it is. I don’t think that’s any good for them.”

The mood deflated in the room.

“Yeah, probably not,” Lee admitted with a sigh. “You want some of us to come talk to them?”

“We can say something during lessons,” Kelsey offered.

“Yeah, if you think it’ll help,” Ismini said. “Got any super special tips since you’ve had to deal with Will before?”

Lee made a face. “Yeah, that wasn’t really the same situation at all, and it did not go very well so my recommendation is, um, not do any of that.”

“Define any,” Travis said.

Lee made an exaggerated grimace. “Definitely don’t go insulting anyone’s mortal parents for one thing.”

“I wasn’t going to do that,” Travis complained. “I’m not stupid.”

“It’s more like make sure nobody else does it either.”

“Fine, I will take it under advisement then,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Any other brilliant tips?”

“I don’t know, man, we had to call in Dad on that one.”

“Okay, clearly I shouldn’t have asked you for advice then,” Travis said.

“I told you it didn’t go well,” he said defensively.

"Are we done here?” Thalia asked, interrupting what could have boiled over into an argument.

Lee looked over to Travis, and he shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess we’re done,” Lee said.

“Great,” she said sarcastically, getting up from her seat. She folded up the chair and put it back and was out the door as people were still standing up.

“You know,” Castor said to me. “I’m not sure I like her.”

“Yeah, I can see why,” I said with a sigh.

The end of camp couldn’t come soon enough. Yeah, I’d have to live with Mom again, but I wasn’t getting into arguments with all of my mortal friends. I could do with some more normalcy.

Chapter Text

Thalia seemed a little more engaged with the Greek lessons in the next class whenever I glanced over at her out of the corner of my eye. I didn't try to talk to her, though, going straight to lunch then to afternoon activities. The triplets kidnapped me for more singing lessons since they were running out of time to teach me. Nothing I did made Sammy think I was polished enough on Not While I'm Around to pick a different song, unfortunately. They also made me sing along around the bonfire that evening even though I tried to get them to help John and Andreas instead.

The next afternoon I got away from them when the buoys came in. Chiron collected me and asked me to help get them set up. I talked to the naiads about where the best place to set up would be, away from the swans and the canoes. They motioned for me to follow them and we marked out a loop to place the buoys along to create the swimming area. Since it was for the littler kids, I had them adjust it to be a little thinner, hug the shoreline and not go so deep.

"We're all set," I told Chiron when I got back out of the lake.

"Excellent. Do you need anymore assistance?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

The buoys had come with instructions, and I'd gotten some experience with knots out on the sea. It took me a second to switch from Greek back to English, but the steps weren't complicated. I got all the buoys tied to the weight, and maybe normal people would have to drop them, but I could walk in with the weights and put them in the exact right spot.

I walked back to shore when we finished to take a good look at them. The naiads popped their heads above water to check for themselves.

"Can we swim now?"

I turned to see John coming towards me, Andreas behind him, and farther back, the rest of group A with Berenice and a couple nymphs.

"Do you have a swimsuit?" I asked him.

"Yes, but not on me," he said, gesturing to his cargo shorts. “Obviously.”

"Perhaps if everyone got changed, we could test out the water," Chiron offered, looking over to Berenice.

She gave a thumbs off.

"Let's go!" one of the girls shouted from farther back. She broke off running for the cabins.

"I'm gonna get there first!" Andreas shouted, running full tilt after her. He had definitely not grown out of his childhood chub and into the athletic build of the rest of his siblings yet and quickly got passed by other kids. It also wouldn’t help that cabin seven was on the far side of the U from the lake than cabin eight.

"That should get some of their energy out," Chiron said.

Berenice walked after them, keeping an eye on them from the back. The nymphs skipped along with the children.

"Should I stay here?" I asked. "Just in case?"

"Perhaps we should make a lifeguard position," Chiron said. "We won't have you at it all the time, but I'm sure we can see to training you and the other strong swimmers we have."

The kids made their way back eventually, all in their swimsuits and with a new layer of sunscreen that wasn't totally rubbed in on some of them. Chiron stopped them to make them finish properly putting it on properly.

"Okay, who of you can swim?" I asked.

They all raised their hands and started going, "Me!"

"Alright, you can head in," I said, gesturing to the water. I watched closely as they ran forward into the lake. None of them seemed very scared off the water though not all of them actually went deep enough to swim and a lot of splashing fights started.

"You're aware drowning is very quiet, and that it will most likely look like an upturned face just above the water?" Chiron asked me quietly as he also watched the kids.

"Yeah," I said as Mom made sure to tell me the first years I can remember going to Montauk though I hadn't ever seen it in real life . Even when Clarisse's ship went down, no one had been drowning afterwards.

The stragglers arrived then along with Berenice and the nymphs. They had new additions as well. The guys I normally saw playing basketball had all changed to swimsuits and flip-flops.

"Nice buoys," Travis said with a smile as he stopped by me.

"Chiron bought them," I said. "I just put them in."

"That's good, too," he said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. "See ya in the water."

The older boys headed to the deeper parts of the cordoned off section, bypassing all the splashing kids. I didn't go in, watching instead. Some of the nymphs waded in, the naiads coming up to speak with them. Berenice stayed on the shore with me and Chiron. She'd put on a big sun hat and her bathing suit, but she had a wrap around her hips and didn't move to take it off.

No one got out of the water until dinner time, and everyone came up to the pavilion still dripping. I could have tried drying them off, but that would have been a lot of people to go through. At least no one seemed to be shivering during sing alongs down at the bonfire.

The next afternoon, I sneaked away to cabin seven after chores. We had the canoes so I could get that finished up early. The triplets would still be working on chores and hopefully not check here first, and I wouldn't get roped into lifeguarding. I checked out the music room in the back. It was empty. I cautiously stepped inside.

I kind of had permission already, but I prayed anyways. Dear Apollo, is it alright if I just borrow an electric guitar for a little bit?

I glanced around, but no flaring lights or any other signs came. I let out a breath and headed towards the wall where all the instruments available to borrow were. I found the one that was closest to the guitar I'd used at school.

I got everything set up with a practice amp, but made sure to keep the volume low. I did a few different licks as a warm up before switching over to playing the White Stripes. It wasn't the same as playing with Ellie, but I could mess with the distortion on a new pedal and try to get it closer to what I remembered it being on the album.

"Is that the Strokes or whoever the hell you were talking about?"

I slapped my palm over the strings and whipped my head around towards the entrance.

Thalia stood over in the doorway. "Aren't you, like, supposed to be in cabin three?"

"I don’t know. Shouldn’t you be in cabin one?" I asked.

She walked into the room. I didn’t really have a right to kick her out, but I could play nice if she would.

"Lee said I could come here to listen to some music,” she said. “He thought no one would be practicing."

"I didn't tell him I was gonna be in here," I said.

"You broke in?" she asked, not quite judgy but not quite teasing either.

"No, I asked your brother nicely," I said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked sharply.

"Phoebus?" I asked. "Your brother on your dad's side? God of music? Ringing any bells?"

"Shut up," she snapped. "Just tell me where the CDs are."

"Pretty sure they're in the back," I said, pointing. "You know what you're looking for?"

"Yeah, you know where they keep Green Day?" she asked as she moved towards the odd corner in the back of the room that wasn’t visible from the entrance.

"Nope. All I know is how to play American Idiot," I said.

"That's not Green Day," she said as she started looking around.

"Uh, pretty sure it is," I said then played the main riff for the song. "That's definitely Green Day.”

"It sounds cool, but it's not Green Day," she said. "I've listened to all five of their albums."

"They've definitely got more than five albums," I said then stopped. "Oh."

"Right," Thalia said. "They came out with new albums. Of course."

I cleared my throat and carefully set aside the guitar. "The album American Idiot’s pretty good if you want to listen to it. The song American Idiot is, like, their most famous one now, but I think St. Jimmy is my favorite off the album. I'm sure it's here somewhere."

I joined her in the nook in the back with all the CDs. I hadn’t really poked around in there before, but I was pretty sure this could not be every single piece of recorded music the cabin had. I scanned the cases then spotted the white and black on red. "Here, found it.”

I showed the case to her.

She nodded. “Do you know where the player is?”

I went over to the CD player I’d never touched since it was part of the same system for the record player which I definitely could not be allowed to touch as the chances of me breaking something were way, way too high. I made sure there wasn’t already a CD in there before putting it in and playing it.

The speakers were definitely way better than the ones on the CD player I had at home.

Thalia sat down on the couch. “Guess you’re not complete shit at guitar.”

“Not complete shit,” I said as I sat back down on the chair. “What everyone always aspires to be.”

“Shut up,” she said. “I was just saying you got the riff right.”

“Yeah, I know I did,” I said, picking my guitar up again. “You gonna talk or listen?”

“Well, I’m not gonna be able to listen if you’re gonna play over it.”

“I’m not going to play over it,” I said, turning the amp off.

I still didn’t strum, but I tried to follow along with the fingering. I glanced up every so often to Thalia slouching down on the couch with a look of concentration on her face.

“His voice is the same, but their whole sound isn’t exactly the same anymore,” she said between songs.

“Is that a good thing or not?” I asked.

“Have you listened to any of their other albums?”

“Just Dookie,” I said. “I like American Idiot better. It sounds more like Green Day to me.”

“Huh,” she said. “They sound a little less like Green Day to me.”

I shrugged and went back to fingering. I was way off since I hadn’t really tried to play like I had with the White Stripes.

When the CD finished, I looked up, and Thalia was watching me.

“What was the band you said you played?” she asked.

“The Strokes,” I said. “They’re not punk, but they’re still good.”

“Alright, whatever, put them on,” she said, waving lazily towards the CDs.

I put the guitar down again and searched through all the shelves to find Is This It. I switched it out with American Idiot, pressed play, put the Green Day CD back then sat down. Thalia’s eyebrows rose as she listened. 

“Can’t believe I thought you might be cool,” she said. “This shit is lame.”

“What? You’ve barely even listened to it for five minutes,” I said.

“I don’t need to listen to more than that. This is like easy listening music, what the hell is this?” she asked.

“It is not easy listening music,” I said. “The Strokes are cool.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” she said, getting up to stop the CD player and go look for another one.

“You’re not one of those people that hates the Beatles, are you?” I asked.

She gave me a weird look over her shoulder. “No, I mean, I respect the musicianship, but they’re just not my thing aside from that one that’s like almost a metal song.”

“Helter Skelter,” I said.

“Yeah, that one. You a big Beatles fan?”

“I learned guitar with them,” I said.

“Can you play that one?” she asked.

I picked up the guitar again and played the intro into the first chords then stopped. “That’s about as much as I remember.”

“How long have you been playing for?” she asked, turning fully away from the shelves of CDs.

“About a year, started last summer,” I said.

“Seriously? Only a year? You sound pretty good for a year,” she said, peering down at the guitar.

“Well, I got Lysander to teach me, and I practice pretty much daily,” I said with a shrug.

“Are you sure you’re not like secretly an Apollo kid,” she asked, making the lights flare gently.

“You should really call him Phoebus, and yeah, the underwater breathing is a pretty big give away.”

“But then why are you so good at guitar?”

“Anyone can be good at guitar, not just Phoebus’s kids,” I said. “If you like it and put in the effort anyways.”

“So are the only things you do swim and guitar?” she asked.

“I don’t really swim,” I said. “I’m pretty much dry underwater unless I want to be wet, and I kinda just use the currents to get around. Also, I skateboard.”

“Like for real you skateboard?” she asked. “You don’t just go five steps and fall flat on your face?”

“Of course it’s for real. I use it to get around, and there’s a skate park near my school,” I said.

She made a face.

“What?” I asked.

“You can’t actually be cool,” she said.

“Why couldn’t I be cool?” I asked.

“You basically wear all blue and you listen to whatever hell that shitty band is,” she said. “How can you do that, but then play guitar and skateboard?”

“What’s wrong with blue?” I asked.

“Nothing, but you can’t wear all blue,” she said, gesturing to me.

“Oh because all black is so much better,” I said, nodding towards her outfit.

“Yeah, duh.”

“I dunno,” I said. “Sounds pretty basic to me.”

“Basic?” she asked. “What the hell do you mean basic?”

“All black’s pretty easy to put together that’s what I mean. You haven’t done anything with it,” I said. “I at least did something with my hair.”

“Fuck you,” she said, flipping me off. “I do my hair. I don’t just wake up with it like this.”

“But you came out of the tree with it.”

“I went into the tree with it.”

“You were on the run from monsters and took the time to style it?” I asked.

“I didn’t wake up with them running after me,” she said. “It takes like ten seconds, just rub a little gel in and go up. You’re telling me you don’t use any products at all?”

I used way more than just gel in my hair, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. “Some, but only like when I wash it, not every time I get up in the morning. I just comb it.”

“Even on quests or whatever?” she asked.

“If I still have a comb on me, but two out of two times my bags have exploded,” I said.

“How?” she asked. “Weren’t you in the ocean for the last one?”

“Boats can explode, too.”

“Maybe you just have shit luck,” she said.

“Yeah, I already knew that,” I said. “You should see my permanent record.”

“Well, at least we didn’t have to worry about that on the run,” she said.

“You don’t have to worry about it here with Chiron either,” I said. “You can just get taught here with Annabeth and Will and Beckendorf and the other kids.”

“Yeah,” she said, but there was something strange about how she said it.

The conch horn for dinner sounded before I could ask her about it. Thalia left as I put the guitar and CD back. She had already sat down at her table by the time I made it to the pavilion.

The next afternoon was the last before the bead ceremony, and Annabeth told me we'd be doing my birthday party down by the beach again.

"I thought you were still mad at me," I told her.

"I'm still mad about what you said about Luke," she told me sternly. "But I already got things set up, and we're still friends."

"Okay, got it," I said then lamely tacked on, "thanks."

I'd have to get her something extra nice at Christmas.

A good sized group of cabin seven came like last year, so did the guys from cabin nine and Castor and Pollux. Thalia was there, too, though she looked annoyed and sat as far from the group as she could while still being next to Annabeth. Grover did not show, but I didn't say anything about it at all.

"Happy Birthday!" they shouted at me.

The cake was all blue and also said happy birthday on it. They sang me the song, but there weren't any candles to blow out. We cut up the cake and started eating.

Cabin seven went first to give me gifts. They were all CDs of various kinds. A Police album from Gordie, a Rush album from Michael for Neil Pert, Lee gave me a Sly & The Family Stone album with a warning I may not like it, and Aurora gave me a Joni Mitchell album. 

When I looked over to the triplets, Sammy shook her head as the other two grinned. "We're going last," she said.

"Okay," I said, holding up my hands.

"We can go next," Beckendorf said.

Eugene pulled out a package from behind himself to hand to me. It was smaller than last year's gift, but still pretty heavy. I opened it up to reveal a more rectangular version of the plate they'd given me.

"It's for your window sill," Holton said. "Figure if you've got one for the door, next thing is your window."

"Still manual?" I asked.

"Yeah," Eugene said with a sigh. "Getting it that size was hard enough. We couldn't figure out a way to make it automatic without it falling off the sill."

"That's fine. I just wanted to make sure I knew how it worked," I said, setting it carefully to the side of the CDs.

"Here's from us," Castor said, tossing a wrapped gift to me.

I tore off the paper. "Titus Andronicus?"

"Yeah, it's a less popular Shakespeare tragedy," Pollux said. "Pretty sure it means Dad doesn't like you."

"I already knew that," I said.

"But hey, now you have two Shakespeare plays," Castor said. "You can start a collection."

"I guess," I said, and put it with the CDs. At least the title was cool.

Annabeth cleared her throat then offered me a box. I opened it to find a woven belt inside, the middle dark blue and the edges a paler green.

"The blue was dyed with woad, and the edge with some of the seaweed," Annabeth said. "I considered doing a shark pattern, but that might limit how much you could wear it."

"At least you're not helping to make him totally monochrome," Thalia said.

"I wear other colors," I said, and now I would have to make sure to wear the belt.

"Sure, you do," she said.

"I literally wore my bright orange Camp Half-Blood shirt this week," I said.

"It's our turn!" Sammy interrupted. "It's from us and Dad."

I braced because it definitely had to be something music related if Apollo had gotten in on it.

The triplets pulled away a blanket they'd had tucked behind them, revealing a black instrument case. I said nothing as they passed the case around to me.

I held it in my lap without opening it. "I already have a guitar."

"We know," Will said with a grin. "This one's different."

"Go on, open it," Aislinn said.

I took a breath then opened the case. Inside lay an electric guitar with a deep blue body. It definitely wasn't the guitar I borrowed from the music room at the back of the cabin.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I asked. "How much was this?"

Aislinn shrugged like it didn't matter.

"Practice," Will said.

"With this amp," Sammy said, pulling out a little practice amp from behind herself complete with cords.

"Come on, don't you want to play it?" Aislinn asked.

I stared down at it. It was almost too pretty and pristine to touch. "Yeah."

"Try it out," Lee said. "See if it works for you."

If Apollo had picked it out for me, there was no way it wouldn't. I pulled it gingerly out of the case anyways. I set it up with the practice amp. I played a few test cords to get a feel for it. I didn't have a pick on me and tried out one of the few fingerstyle Beatles songs I remembered.

“How’s it feel?” Lee asked.

I nodded. “It’s really good.”

“Good.”

“Happy birthday, Percy!” the triplets said in unison.

“Thanks,” I said looking around the whole group. “For the cake and the gifts and everything.”

“You’re welcome,” Annabeth said, smiling.

There was no way our fight about Luke was totally over, but at least she still liked me enough to set up and attend my birthday party, and even give me a gift.

Chapter Text

The last full day of camp was a mess just as it had been the year before. Everyone talked through our Greek lesson, and Lee really didn’t try that hard to get us back on task. Our afternoon activity ended early which worked great for me since it was wrestling. I used the extra time to explain to Blackjack what was happening, and he was not pleased at the change.

How are we going to practice flying? he asked, offended.

“I’ll stop by in December,” I said. “That’ll have to be good enough.”

He snorted. I’ll just have to come find you again.

“Please, don’t,” I said.

Then I headed back to the cabin to pack up everything I wouldn't need that night or the next morning, but it wasn't easy. I kept spotting my gifts, especially the guitar, and pausing in my work to just to stare at them. It was going to be a problem getting them all back home. I had two skateboards now and a guitar in addition to my duffel bag of all my clothes and backpack for everything else like my helmet and CDs and so on. Hopefully Mom wouldn't get too mad.

That evening at the bonfire, the beads were passed out to everyone. Lee gave me one like Lysander had.

"Thanks," I told him as I took it, and he smiled before moving on to his next sibling.

I glanced around the other cabins. Thalia sat next to Annabeth, and Kelsey gave Thalia her bead and necklace. I looked down at my own bead. Someone had painted a tiny Golden Fleece on a tiny pine branch, of course. I strung it on next to the first bead from last year then tied it back together. I slipped it back on over my head.

The next morning was its usual mad scramble of kids running through their morning routines and eating breakfast and getting their bags up Half-Blood Hill to either get to Argus’s van or meet their parents and trying to say goodbye to everybody. I felt like a pack mule trying to carry everything I had out of my cabin.

"Percy," Aurora said as she spotted me. "You still have paintings in the Arts and Crafts Center."

"Crap," I said under my breath then called back to her, "Uh, thanks, I'll get them."

"Do you need a box or something to pack them in?" she asked.

"Yes, if you've got it."

"I'll meet you at the center," she said, darting into cabin seven.

I carted all my things over to the center, setting down my guitar and skateboards near the drying rack. At least I wasn't the only one in there packing up all their stuff. Aurora joined me with a cardboard box filled with packing paper.

"Just wrap up your paintings, and we'll put them in," she said.

"Okay," I said, grabbing one of my pieces.

I let her go first to watch how she wrapped the canvas. Then I copied her.

"Do you know if there's a way to protect these from saltwater?" I asked as I wrapped.

She paused. "You know, I think you'd better let your dad handle it. Or my dad. One of them."

"Okay," I said because that was a pretty resounding no.

Thankfully, all my paintings fit in the box.

"I'm gonna have to do something that takes more time next year," I said.

She smiled. "You could try oil painting."

"No, that's too fancy."

She laughed then folded up the box flaps one on top of the other in a spiral so it held itself down and didn't need to be taped shut. "There you go."

"Thanks," I said then looked at my other stuff. "Um, I don't have enough hands."

"Oh," she said, peering over the table. "I'll just help you out then."

"Thanks," I said, picking up the guitar and boards. "Mom's not coming for a little while still so I was just gonna get all my stuff ready out on the hill."

"Good plan," she said.

I led the way outside, and she followed me over to the hill with everyone else trying to leave. A major difference this time were all the little kids off to the side with no one coming to pick them up. A lot of them were upset and crying. A number of the other counselors as well as the older year rounders were going around trying to comfort them. John and Andreas were some of the only few not crying, but both were holding onto Will's hands and still looking upset.

"Should we help them?" I asked.

"I'm gonna go over after I finish with this," Aurora said, hefting up my box of paintings.

"Okay," I said, picking up my pace.

I found a clear spot on the hill to set my stuff down where I'd also be able to keep an eye on it. Aurora headed straight back to the group of kids, but I got waylaid by Jessa giving me a hug goodbye. Cam also said goodbye, but he just gave me a pat on the shoulder as he ran past. Michael tried to give me a noogie even though he was too short, and Beckendorf stopped by to tell me a few things to test the board on before he left to visit his mom for a couple weeks. He even ripped out a whole page of his notebook with his instructions written out, and I safely tucked it into my pocket.

I headed back to the group of kids staying, waving goodbye to the older kids I recognized as they left. When I reached the group, I realized people were missing.

"Hey," I said to Will. "Have you seen Annabeth and Thalia?"

He shook his head. "I haven't seen 'em here."

"Oh," I said.

"I wanna go," Andreas said sullenly as he pouted.

"You can't," Will said, not very sympathetically. "Dad said we have to stay so we stay."

John shot Will a skeptical look.

"Have you guys learned to use Iris-messages yet?" I asked them. "You can call your moms that way."

John nodded. "But we still can't go home."

Andreas sniffled.

"I know, but you guys gotta stay safe," I said which was the best I had to offer. 

It didn't make any of them any happier, and Will scowled the hardest out of any of them.

Sammy came running up to us, Aislinn on her heels. "I gotta go, my mom's here!"

Sammy crashed into Will, squeezing him in a hug. Aislinn joined on with her, and Will hugged them back after twisting his hands free from John and Andreas.

They said something to each other, but I couldn't make out the words. Then they pulled back slightly and Sammy shouted, "Group hug on Percy!"

"Wait—,"

Then all three of them glommed onto me, hugging as tightly as they could which was pretty tight. After a moment, John joined in though he was so small, his arms were just on Sammy and Will, not me. Andreas followed him, going on the other side.

I sighed. "Okay, guys, you hugged me."

Then other Apollo siblings noticed. Lee grinned as he walked over to us. He wasn't as tall as Lysander, but he still had to bend over to try and get his arms around us.

"Group goodbye hug?" Lee asked.

"Yes," Sammy said.

Aurora joined on, mimicking Lee on the other side.

"Alright, let me out," I complained. "It's too hot, and I'm squished!"

Lee laughed. He did pull back, but not before ruffling my hair. Aurora did the same right after, but I broke out of the circle before anyone else could. I hurriedly combed through my hair with my fingers to fix it.

“You’re messing up my hair,” I complained.

“I think you’ll live,” Lee said.

“Okay, I gotta go now, bye,” Sammy said.

“My mom’s gonna be here soon, too,” Aislinn said. “Bye!”

They both ran off up towards the hill.

“Do you have to leave now, too?” Will asked me.

“Pretty soon, but I need to go find Annabeth and Thalia,” I said.

I headed over to cabin six first and asked Malcolm where Annabeth was after helping him with a suitcase he was struggling to roll over the grass.

“I haven’t seen her, but I know she packed this morning,” he told me.

“She packed?” I asked, “But she’s a year rounder.”

He shrugged. “Maybe she made up with her dad.”

She hadn’t ever said anything about making up with her dad though.

Once I dropped off Malcolm’s suitcase, I then made my way through the crowd on the hill since Annabeth had packed. I found her and Thalia standing together on the edge of the border, observing all the parents coming to get their kids. They both had heavily stuffed backpacks and duffel bags by their feet.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked. “Why’re you all packed up?”

“Percy,” Annabeth said, offering me a smile.

“We’re going,” Talia said. “Duh.”

“Going where?” I asked.

“Boarding school,” Annabeth said, way too cheerfully.

“You’re going to boarding school?” I asked, skeptical.

“I’m not staying here with all the babies,” Thalia said, glancing over to the assembled year rounders still down in the valley.

“Don’t you need your parent’s permission or something?” I asked. “What about the monsters?”

“We got special permission from Chiron,” Annabeth said. “I’ve been on two successful quests, and Thalia kept us safe on the run so he said we’re okay to go so long as we check in with him regularly.”

I did not mention that Thalia keeping everyone safe had ultimately resulted in her turning into a tree.

“You got permission,” Thalia said.

“To stay with my mom, not go to boarding school,” I said. “I also have a sword that turns into a pen, a watch that’s a shield, and gifts from cabin nine to trap monsters.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ve got a weapon,” she said with a sharp smile before holding up a thick silver bracelet. “And a shield.”

“I’ve got my cap and dagger, too,” Annabeth said. “Besides, we’re going to Brooklyn so we’re close enough to make a get away if we have to.”

“You seriously want to go to boarding school?” I asked. “Have you ever been to boarding school?”

“It’s school you live at, who cares?” Thalia asked dismissively.

“It sucks,” I told her. “You’re gonna be in a dorm with a shitty roommate, no one’s going to give a shit you’re hardwired for Greek and to survive battling monsters, and they’re not going to give you any lee way when a monster shows up and weird shit happens. If you’re going to live away from home, live at camp. You’re safe here, and everyone knows what’s actually going on.”

Annabeth frowned at me, but Thalia spoke before she could get anything out.

“Just because you couldn’t hack it doesn’t mean we can’t.”

I looked away, trying to bite down on my temper. It didn’t work. “Fuck you. Get expelled then. Have a wonderful fucking time.”

“Percy,” Annabeth said, offended and maybe even hurt.

I shook my head and turned away.

“Asshole,” Thalia muttered, but not quietly enough I couldn’t hear it.

I flipped her off before walking away.

I was no longer in the mood to give happy goodbyes to people. I sat down by my things and made sure to glare away from everyone leaving on top of the hill as well as everyone staying down at the bottom. I kept checking my watch for the time my mom would arrive, and it couldn’t come fast enough. I wrapped my hands around my wrists so I wouldn’t do something stupid.

The crowd thinned out, and I eventually heard my mom calling my name. I stood up, walking over the border to meet her.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you in person again,” she said as she wrapped me up in a tight hug.

I hugged her back just as tightly, burying my face in her shoulder. It didn’t matter how much we’d fought or what she’d done before right then. She was my mom, and she was hugging me because she was happy to see me. It still felt the way it always did. I pretended my eyes didn’t sting.

This was the right choice, not staying at camp, and definitely not boarding school.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked, gently pushing me away and ducking to try and get a look at my face. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I said roughly before clearing my throat. “I just got a lot to carry.”

“I didn’t think you brought that much,” she said.

“Uh, I didn’t, but,” I gestured towards my pile of things.

“What is all that?” she asked. “Is that two skateboards? Where’d you get the second one from?”

“I ordered it while I was here because Beckendorf experimented on the first one,” I said as I head back over the border to pick up the two skateboards. “Now, the old one is like motorized, but it’s too heavy for normal tricks so that’s what the new one is for.”

“And the box is yours, too?” she asked as I set the boards down beside her.

“Yeah, it’s full of paintings,” I said, going back for it.

“Paintings? Someone gave you their paintings, or a lot of someones, I guess, if it’s a whole box,” she said.

“Uh, no, they’re all my paintings,” I said, ferrying the box over to set beside the boards.

“You paint now? You didn’t mention that,” she said.

“Um, well, it’s new, and it’s not really painting. I just pour the paint on a canvas,” I said as I then went back over the border to shoulder my backpack and duffel bag and grab the guitar. “I guess you can get first dibs on them.”

“First dibs? You’re going to give them all away?” she asked. “But they’re your art.”

I shrugged. “Aislinn made me do it so I don’t really know what to do with all of them, but she said that Phoebus takes whatever art they’re cool with giving him so maybe he might want one, and I don’t know. Do you think Father would want one? I’m still not sure they’d survive underwater.”

Mom shook her head like she was trying to clear it. “Um, well, I’m sure he has a way to keep them safe. I guess I should just be happy you’re giving me first dibs then.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” I said with a sigh. “It’s just poured paint. They don’t look like anything.”

“Alright, I get it, you’re a music guy not an art guy,” she said. “Is that guitar another gift from Phoebus?”

I nodded. “Birthday gift from him and the triplets. It’s electric, just so you know.”

“Please don’t blow out my eardrums or get the cops called on us,” she said.

“Mom, no, I’m not gonna get the cops called,” I said.

She smiled. “I know, but that thing’s going to be a lot louder than the acoustic. What do you want me to carry?”

“The box,” I said. “Please.”

“Okay, let’s try and get everything to fit in the car,” she said, hefting up the box. “Sure you got it all? We can make two trips.”

“I got it,” I said, picking up the two boards.

She led the way down the hill to the car, parked on the edge of the road. She shifted the box to be able to pop the trunk. We got everything to fit in, and we could have put the guitar in there too, but I put it in the back seat instead to try and keep it safe.

“All set?” she asked. “Say goodbye to everybody?”

I nodded. “Yeah, already did that a while ago.”

“Okay, good, great,” she said. “We’re doing so much better than last year.”

“Oh yeah because getting stung by a pit scorpion is such a high bar to clear,” I said.

“Let’s try not to jinx it, okay?” Mom asked as she went around to the driver’s seat. “Let’s just get in the car and drive home safely and not get bit by any creepy bugs.”

I got into the passenger seat, buckling in at the same time as her. “Scorpions aren’t bugs. They’re arachnids like spiders.”

“Okay, I’ll be sure to tell it that the next time I see one,” she said.

“They’re not native to New York,” I said. “I think you’ll be okay.”

“At least I know you’re paying attention in science class,” she said with a sigh before starting up the car.

“It’s better than doing English,” I said, slouching down in the seat.

Mom stiffened for a moment, not pulling onto the road. Then she cleared her throat and started moving again. “That’s okay. English doesn’t have to be your favorite. Is there anything you want to listen to on the way back?”

“Radio’s fine,” I said. “My CDs are in my bag in the trunk.”

“Alright,” she said, hitting the power button. “We can try the rock station then.”

I managed not to fall asleep on the way back this time even though staring out the window at the passing scenery always had a good shot of knocking me out. We hit traffic as we got closer to the city. The radio went to commercial.

“Mom?” I asked.

“Hm?”

“Did I tell you about Thalia?”

She turned down the radio. “I’m guessing you don’t mean the muse.”

“Nah,” I said, shaking my head even though she was still looking out the windshield. “She’s a demigod daughter of the king.”

Mom’s hands tightened on the wheel, her knuckles going white.

“She got nearly killed by hellhounds on the border of camp, and her father turned her into a tree to save her. Putting the Golden Fleece on her turned her back into a human,” I said. “She’s only been back a couple weeks.”

“Oh, so she’s like you then,” she said.

After I didn’t answer, she asked, “Well, you’ve talked to her, right? Is she nice?”

I sighed, delaying the response. “Not really.”

“Did something happen between the two of you?”

“You know why Father and my uncles swore their oath, to not have more demigod kids?” I asked.

“I thought it was because their kids were too strong, but I don’t know the details,” she said.

“No, it’s because of a prophecy. When one of us Big Three kids turn sixteen, we either save or doom Olympus,” I said.

Mom said nothing for several long, dragging moments. “I think we should talk about this when we get home, and I don’t have to pay attention to traffic.”

“Okay,” I mumbled.

She turned the radio back up, and the music played.

I sunk down in my seat rather than looking out the window at the passing buildings and cars.

Chapter Text

We were quiet the rest of the way home. Mom parked in the garage and helped me carry all my things upstairs.

"I've got some lunch I prepared earlier if you're hungry," she said.

I nodded, leaving my bags and everything else in the living room and following her into the kitchen. It was just sandwiches with some fruit and granola bars. I ignored Mom as she watched me pour my libation and eat. I chugged the rest of my glass when I finished, using the back of my hand to wipe off my mouth.

"Are you ready to talk about it?" she asked cautiously.

"I don't know what to say," I said, setting aside the glass.

"Whatever you like," she said.

I sat back down in the dining chair, slouching down. Mom waited for me, but I still couldn't find words.

Mom cleared her throat. "Well, if I could go first, I'm a little worried about all of this. I got the impression your father wasn't supposed to have more demigod kids because it was dangerous."

"Yeah, pretty much," I said. "A lot of us Big Three demigods can be powerful, but it's really because one of us could destroy Olympus."

Mom frowned, tapping her finger on the table a couple times. "Do you want to destroy Olympus?"

"What? Mom, no," I said, sitting up. "It doesn't mean we go and destroy it—well, maybe it could—but I think it means we make the wrong choice and that’s how Olympus falls."

"If it's you, you think that's what would happen," she said.

"Yeah," I said, looking down at my knees. "If it's me."

"So it's a problem if it's Thalia because you think she would choose to destroy Olympus," she guessed.

"No," I said quickly then shook my head. I met her two weeks ago. I couldn't really say that for sure. "I don't know. It's more that...she was with Luke. Annabeth said they were like a little family, and Luke is...weird about her, and I'm not sure how weird she is about him."

"The same Luke that nearly killed you last year?” she asked.

"Yeah, more than once," I said. "We ran into him again on this quest. Last year, Annabeth said she would help me, but she lived with Luke at camp full time for six years and now she thinks he's just brainwashed or whatever. I tried warning Thalia about him, but I'm not sure if she'll listen to me. We didn't exactly get along great."

"You think he can turn them," she said.

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe."

"Have you told anyone else about your concerns?" she asked. "Any adults that can help look out for them?"

I shook my head. "Lysander knows about Annabeth, and Annabeth's older sisters know, but...Thalia doesn't have anybody like that. She's not close to anyone except Annabeth, and I guess Grover. They're also going to boarding school in Brooklyn this year."

"Boarding school?" Mom asked. "They're allowed to do that? Is it safe?"

I shrugged. "They both have weapons so I guess so. I'm allowed to go to school, too."

"With me," she stressed. "I know what's going on and can see through the Mist. They'll be on their own."

I shrugged. "They were on their own before. They both ran away from home."

"And this is better than losing them entirely," Mom said with a heavy sigh.

"Annabeth's been wanting to leave camp the whole time I've known her, to live in the real world," I said.

Mom shook her head. "So they still think it’s better to strike out on their own. Do you see why I wanted to keep you with me?"

I didn't. I couldn't. Because Will lived year round at camp, and as mad as he could be at times about it, he was in a better place than Annabeth and Thalia with his dad and his siblings including Chiron all there to look out for him.

"I'm gonna go unpack," I said, getting up from my seat and avoiding looking at my mother.

"Percy," she said.

"Better get it done before school," I said.

"You have a week still," she said.

I picked up my bags and took them into my room. I'd put all my gifted CDs on top so they wouldn't be squished. I took out the Offspring album and popped it into my CD player. Then I started on all the rest. Dirty laundry in the basket, shoes in the closet, sweater from Darryl nicely put away, the new trap from cabin nine on the window sill and on and on.

Everything got put back until I was left with the paintings. I went back out to the living room and opened up the box and started unwrapping the canvases. I started laying them out on the coffee table.

Mom cleared her throat. When I didn't leave or anything, she asked, "What are these?"

"Paintings," I said.

"You did these?" she asked. "You never told me you were into painting."

"I'm not," I said. "Aislinn made me do something with her so I just poured out paint on a canvas."

"But they're nice," she said, coming closer to peer down at them. "They're so beach-y."

"I guess."

"You don't like them?"

I shrugged. "I don't know what to do with them. Aislinn said Phoebus might take some. Do you think Father would want any?"

"What about me?" she asked.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I don't get first pick as your mom?" she asked.

"Do you even want any?" I asked. "They're not anything special. It's not like they took any skill to make."

"I'm sure that's not true," she insisted. "Besides, it's still your art. I want to see it as much as I want to listen to your guitar playing."

"What?" I asked. "No, my guitar playing is way better. I put actual effort into that. You're only listening because I'm the one doing it?"

"No, that's not what I said, sweetheart," she said. "I like your guitar playing very much, but I can't hang it on the wall."

She gestured to the various blank spaces on the walls around the living room. The only art in our last apartment had been Gabe’s shitty posters, and the only decorative thing Mom had gotten since was a thrifted rustic clock now hanging in the kitchen.

"Okay, well, if you want them so bad, just pick them," I said, throwing my hands up.

"I will," she said decisively.

I huffed and finished unpacking the paintings so she could see them all. She started rearranging them over and over again on the couch and the coffee table, looking back up the walls. I left her to it and retreated to the kitchen to get a snack.

"Is it okay if I check my email?" I asked as I came back to the living room.

"Sure," she said absent-mindedly, still looking over the paintings.

I crossed the living room and booted up the computer. I had a number of emails waiting for me. The oldest wasn’t one from Chiron like it had been last year. Instead, it was a whole thread of emails forwarded to me. Chiron had informed all the border patrol members about Thalia’s return to life. Then I saw replies from people who hadn’t come back to camp like Andrew. There were even names that I didn’t recognize at all. Most of it was theorizing about what it meant, and no one quite agreed since there weren’t many details on the prophecy or Luke’s plans with Kronos.

Once I finished the thread, I scrolled to the top to check who had forwarded. It had been Darryl. I responded to her thanks for the update.

The other email I had was from Lysander.

Hey Percy,

I heard that Thalia’s back from being a tree which has got to be a pretty big surprise for you and everyone else. I hope everything’s gone well there, but if not you can always email me to talk about it :)

I’m not sure if you’re at home or at camp, but I hope you’re feeling ready for the coming school year! You’re not really in a grade because you’re in Montessori, but it’s still an important year.

-Lysander

I sighed. I clicked reply, but I sat there staring at the blinking cursor for way too long.

Hi,

I guess it went as well as it could have. She missed seven years and came out 15 not 12. She didn’t even recognize Annabeth at first. She didn’t like what I had to say about Luke, but I couldn’t not tell her. I thought we could maybe get along because she’s a punk fan and really likes Green Day, but we left on a bad note because she thinks it’s a good idea to go to boarding school with Annabeth in Brooklyn.

Anyways, you know the prophecy about a big three kid choosing to save or destroy Olympus on their sixteenth birthday right? Chiron thinks Kronos let us take the Fleece to give himself a shot at controlling the curse so he had Luke poison Thalia’s tree to get her back. What do you think?

Hope you’re doing okay
-Percy

Darryl had also emailed me separately from forwarding the thread.

Hi Percy!

How are things? Did you finally decide what to do about the school year? In any case, I hope you’re happy with your choice.

I know Thalia’s back so there’s another big three kid around, and I hope you guys get along. You guys have been through a lot and don’t have any other siblings to deal with all this together so I think it would be nice if you guys could be that for each other instead.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Darryl

It was easier to respond to her since I had already done Lysander’s.

Hi Darryl,

I’m okay, and back home with my mom for the school year. I’m looking forward to seeing my friends again.

I didn’t really get along with Thalia, though. I tried to help her out, but she didn’t like what I had to say about Luke. She’s also going to boarding school with Annabeth for the school year, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Hope things are good with you

-Percy

I didn’t really have any more emails after that. Maybe I should give my email to my mortal friends though so I would have some way to contact them. There had to be some way to check my emails at camp since both Annabeth and Will had emailed me last year.

I logged out and turned towards my mom. She was busy holding up one of my pieces up against the wall and making a pencil mark along the top edge.

“You’re moving fast,” I said.

“Well, I’m not even sure how I hang this without a frame so not that fast,” she said, marking along the bottom.

“You don’t want to get a frame for it?” I asked.

“But then I wouldn’t get to see the edges,” she said, pulling it away from the wall. She then set down the canvas to pick up a tape measure.

“Which are the ones you aren’t putting up?” I asked.

“I left them on the table,” she said, nodding towards the coffee table.

I got up from the computer desk and headed over to the table. There were still a few left. Almost all of them were ones I had done earlier on.

Father, I know it’s not really your thing, but would you want any of the paintings I made? They’re kind of ocean themed I prayed then looked them over again. I corrected myself. Well, they have blue in them.

I waited a few moments, but I didn’t get a response. Not really surprising since I wasn’t in life threatening danger or really ticked off.

I switched gods. Dear Apollo, some of your kids said you might want some of the paintings I did so…I guess I’m asking if you actually do want any.

I stopped there. I didn’t get a response from him either and shrugged. It was okay if he didn’t want any. It’s not like they were any good.

I checked the clock. “Do you think it’s too late to try the skate park for Ellie and the guys?”

“You don’t want to hang out with me?” Mom asked. “You just got back home, and I thought we’d do a movie night again.”

“But aren’t you busy with putting the paintings up?” I asked.

“No, no, I think that’s as much as I can do for now,” she said, stacking up the paintings and setting them aside. “I gotta get started on dinner anyways. Why don’t you tell me about all the non-Thalia stuff you got up to this summer?”

“Okay,” I agreed.

I followed her to the kitchen. I tried to downplay just about everything that had happened over the summer, but I did not do a great job of it.

I mentioned border patrol, and she asked, “Why did camp need a border patrol?”

Then I had to explain the border was weakened.

“Why was the border weakened?”

I sighed. “Because Thalia’s tree got poisoned.”

“By?”

“Luke.”

Mom sighed. “And I’m guessing you had something to do with how that got solved?”

And somehow that led to confessing about Hermes asking me to talk to Luke.

“How could he ask that of you? He knows his son tried to kill you, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, Mom, he knows,” I said.

There was also how we actually got into the Sea of Monsters.

“You were on a ship that exploded? Perseus!”

“I didn’t make it explode,” I argued. “And we all lived. Except for the skeletons, but they were all dead Confederates anyways so I don’t feel that bad about it.”

Then there was rowing to Circe’s island and turning into a guinea pig.

“You drank an unknown substance given to you by a stranger?” she asked. “And you didn’t wear any sunscreen while you were out in the sun all day?”

“Where was I supposed to get sunscreen in the middle of the ocean, Mom?” I asked. “And I don’t have much choice with the food on quests. It’s worked out before.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “When has it worked out before?”

I’d left out eating the food Medusa out of telling her about the last quest. “Uh, technically any time you buy food you’re getting it from strangers.”

“Don’t give me that,” she said, pointing her spoon at me. “What did you eat?”

“Medusa’s food,” I muttered under my breath.

“You ate food from Medusa?” she asked, nearly yelling. “Do you even know who you’re named after?”

“I didn’t know she was Medusa when I ate her food,” I pointed out.

“Perseus Jackson.”

“Okay, next time she makes it up from Tartarus, I won’t eat her food,” I said, holding up my hands.

Mom made an aggravated noise as she went back to stirring the noodles.

I swallowed down the urge to retreat to my room. I’d argued before with her over Iris-message, but it was different being back in person again.

"Okay," Mom said, taking a deep breath then letting it out again. "What I am trying to say is...I know that your quests are dangerous, but I would appreciate it if you could be more careful in the future and take them seriously."

"I do take them seriously," I said. "They're not exactly fun, but worse things would happen if I didn't go on them."

"I know, that's why I'm trying not to be mad," she said. "I do want to know what's going on in your life when you're away from me, but it's...really hard to hear that your father would put you in that kind of danger."

This did not seem like the right time to say it was kinda her fault too since it takes two to make a baby.

"It's not totally his fault," I said then how my father said he regretted having me flashed through my mind. "Not recently anyways. This time, Clarisse was going to get the Fleece except Grover made an empathy link with me and the messenger wanted me to talk to Luke so Father really had nothing to do with it."

Mom huffed and turned off the stove, taking the pots off the heat before turning to me. "What's this about Grover? I thought the messenger sent you on the quest, but now there’s this empathy link thing? What even is that?"

"Grover’s the one who kind of found the Fleece, and the empathy link is how I found out about it. I asked to go on the quest, but Tantalus wouldn't—,"

"Tantalus? The guy that ate his kid?" Mom asked. "He's alive? He was at your camp?"

"He didn't eat his kid, he fed him to the gods," I said.

"Because that's so much better," she said then took another deep breath. "Okay, so he wouldn't let you leave?"

"No, like I said, Clarisse got the quest officially, but the messenger visited me and basically told me to go on the quest to talk to Luke, but it's good he did because he gave us a bunch of stuff that helped us out because," I paused, gauging her expression, and she was watching me but not looking angry. "Well, like I said, Grover made an empathy link with me."

"And what exactly is that?"

"Basically it meant he could contact me through dreams so he could tell me he was on Polyphemus's island," I said then stared down at my hands. "But it also meant if he died, I'd die, too."

"What," Mom said flatly like she couldn't even register what it meant, but her voice started rising as she asked, "He created a link that would kill you when he was on Polyphemus's island?"

I nodded.

"He was supposed to be protecting you, not the other way around," she said. "Why would he do that? Is the link still there?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Lysander made him dissolve it."

She sighed like a heavy weight had come off her shoulders. "Thank the gods. At least someone has a good head on their shoulders."

More words crowded at the back of my throat, but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to actually say them.

"Percy?"

"I agreed to it," I blurted out. "After I rescued Grover and brought him back to camp, he asked me if I wanted to break the empathy link, but I said we could keep it because I just wanted a way to contact him, but I didn't know how bad the empathy link was, that satyrs aren't supposed to make them with humans, and Lysander really went off on him, and now I'm not even sure I'm still friends with Grover."

"Oh," Mom said, anger gone. She pulled the other dining chair around to set it right next to me. She sat down, rubbing her hand over my back.

"I said some shitty things to him, too, about how I didn't trust him with my life because I was always the one rescuing him," I said. "Am I awful?"

"No, no, of course not," she assured me, gripping my shoulder. "Look, it's not fun to admit this, but Grover made a bad decision which would have hurt very badly if things hadn’t turned out the way they did. That doesn't make him a horrible person, and you're not horrible for being upset about it."

She sighed, rubbing her face with her free hand. "I don't like talking about it, but when I was your age, I had friends who got me into trouble. They just didn't think through what all could go wrong, and I didn't really know what was wrong with it back then. My uncle getting sick was probably the only thing that kept me from turning out like them, but at the time, I felt bad I had to keep telling them I couldn't hang out and so mad at my uncle for being sick."

Then she turned back to me, running her hand through my hair. "What I'm trying to say is, your relationship with Grover is never going to go back to what it was after what's happened, but you can choose what you want your relationship to be now, and if you feel bad for what you said, you apologize."

I nodded slowly. "But you're not friends with those people anymore."

"No," she said. "They did that kind of stuff for a lot longer than the one time Grover’s done it, and I couldn't deal with it anymore after my uncle died. But I looked them up when I got the new computer. I still want things to turn out okay for them."

"Okay," I said. "I probably won't see him until next summer if that anyways. He's going back to searching for Pan soon."

"Alright. Sounds like you don't need to rush this," she said. "You can let things settle down and really think about it."

She then leaned in and pressed a kiss to my temple.

"We, uh, gonna have dinner anytime soon?" I asked gruffly to get past all the emotions.

"Oh, yes, of course," Mom said, springing to her feet.

She went back to the stove to finish making dinner. The spaghetti noodles were definitely overcooked, but we survived.

As promised, we watched a movie after dinner. I picked out The Hunt for the Red October, something to keep us distracted the whole time it was playing. Mom wrapped her arm around my shoulders when I sat down with her, giving me a tight squeeze. I at least stayed awake through the whole movie this time. Mom pulled out her ‘secret’ stash of chocolate for us to share afterwards, sea salt caramel in blue wrappers.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Mom had me double check my school supplies. Montessori school might have helped with my reading, but it did not keep me from losing all my pencils. We made a run to the store to get a new pack as well as an eraser, some pens and highlighters and so on. She got me a pack of loose leaf paper even though I told her I didn't need as much since we did a lot of worksheets.

"Just in case then," Mom said.

"Fine," I grumbled, but it wasn't that big a deal. Mom would end up using it if I didn't so it wasn't like it was a waste.

"Can I go to the skatepark now?" I asked after we got back from the store and had lunch.

"Yes, but wear sunscreen," she said. "You've risked skin cancer enough this summer."

"I got it," I said and slathered it on before I left.

Using Beckendorf's board would have meant I could skip the subway, but I didn't trust it on sidewalks yet. I also wouldn't be able to do tricks once I got to the park so new board it was.

No one was there when I arrived. Well, there was a group of older guys in the bowl and the two girls on inlines that came around every so often trying to do spins, but none of my friends. It wasn't the normal time we skated at even though we didn't have school so I waited around. I gave the girls their space and practiced a few tricks to get back up to speed after having only flat asphalt all summer.

By the time it was definitely the middle of the afternoon when normally everyone would show up, the older guys had left and my friends hadn't shown. I flipped my board up into my hands. I looked up and down the street from the park's entrance, but no sign of any of them.

I had a vague feeling it wasn't really polite, but I skated over Danny's house since it was the only address I had to even be able to try. It took me a sec to refind his buzzer when I arrived then I pressed the right button.

It took a second for someone to respond. "Hello?"

It was Danny's voice.

"Hey, it's Percy, I just got back in town," I said.

"Oh, hey, come on up. We're all here," he said and there was a buzz for the door unlocking.

I headed in before it could lock again. I took the elevator up to his floor and knocked on the door. It flew open. Danny was there somehow even taller than before and tanned.

"Woah, you changed colors," he said.

"What?" I asked. "No, I didn't."

"Your hair's blue, and you got super tanned," Tyler said from behind him. He also seemed taller and tanned, and he wasn't wearing his normal beanie.

"Oh, yeah, I did dye my hair," I said.

"Get outta the way," Ellie snapped before pushing through the other guys in the entry way. "Percy!"

She wrapped me up in a tight hug, and I froze for a second before returning it.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," she said, pulling back. "I like your hair."

She reached out, lightly touching one of the curls. Then she scowled. "You got taller."

The guys all laughed as I said, "Uh, like barely."

"Don't worry about it," Tyler said. "She's just mad she's stopped growing at all."

"It's not fair," Ellie grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Your mom's short as hell, just be happy you're taller than her," Danny said. "Anyways, it's good you found us. Someone broke his wrist so we can't go skateboarding, and we weren't sure how to tell you when you got back in town."

"I can't game either," Ben said, waving around a cast that covered his hand and forearm. "And yet that's what we're doing."

"What kinda game?" I asked.

"Tony Hawk," Tyler said with a laugh. "Some Halo, too."

"Oh, I've done Halo before," I said. Mom had gotten me a second hand xbox, but it's sat by the wayside ever since I got a guitar and a skateboard.

"You only have to beat out Ben to play so not tough competition," Tyler said, laughing until Ben socked him in the arm with his good hand.

"Alright, come on, let's get everyone back inside," Danny said, stepping back into the apartment.

I got backslaps and bro hugs from the other guys after I set my board and helmet down and kicked off my shoes. We all crammed in on the couch except for Ben who'd moved an arm chair around to see the screen.

"We'll start on free skate for Percy for a bit then we'll switch off for the games," Danny said. "Whoever wins stays."

"Got it," I said.

He unpaused the game and navigated over to free skate. Ellie told me all the commands as I tried to copy what Danny was doing on screen. After a few minutes, Danny declared me good enough and we switched over to the competitive games. I lost immediately, forgetting every control I had just learned. I passed the controlled off to Tyler.

"So what was your family emergency you had to leave for?" Ellie asked. "Is it all good now?"

"Uh," I stalled, trying to find a normal way to explain things. "Well, the original problem was with my cousin's camp which has been fixed."

"That makes it sound like there's a new problem," Ben said.

"Yeah, kinda," I said with a sigh.

"How is it kind of a problem?" he asked.

I was gonna have to go out on a limb for explaining this one. "Well, I have a cousin who ran away and got hurt so she was in a coma, and now she's woken up after like years. I'm supposed to be getting along with her, but it's not going well."

"Oh, God, is she okay?" Ellie asked, and even Danny and Tyler were glancing away from the game to look at me.

"Yeah like physically, but a lot happened while she was out, and she is not happy about it, but it's not my fault," I said.

"She's blaming you for stuff?" Ben asked. "That's lame."

"Kind of, but it wasn't like I was gonna lie to her about stuff," I said. "It kinda sucks because she'd probably be cool if she wasn't mad at me."

"Would she?" Ellie asked skeptically.

I nodded. "She wears a little too much black, but she's into punk. Pretty sure her favorite band is Green Day."

"Okay, she's cool," Tyler said. "Does she skate at all?"

"No, I don't think so," I said. "She was annoyed I could. Like she said I couldn't be cool and skate and play guitar because I'd dyed my hair blue and listened to the Strokes."

Danny and Tyler both laughed as Ben said, "You just said she wore too much black."

"She does," I insisted. "She has a black jacket and black shirts and black pants. That's it."

"Yeah, but that's what punk is," Ben said.

"Hey, how old's your cousin?" Tyler asked.

I went with the age she looked like. "Fifteen, why?"

"She's into Green Day, I'm into Green Day," he said, holding out one hand then the other then smooshing them together.

"No, you can't date my cousin," I said. "First of all, she's been through some shit. Second, I don't think you're her type."

"How do you know?" he asked defensively. "I could totally be her type."

"She likes blond jocks," I said.

Ben cackled, and Tyler glared at him.

"Did she date some dude when she was in a coma?" Danny asked.

"No," I said. "She just kind of had a thing with a guy before she got into the coma. He left which is why she's so pissed about things."

Everyone went quiet for a moment.

"I don't think you should date her, bro," Danny said. "That's messy."

"I feel bad for her, but she shouldn't be mad at you for him leaving," Ellie said.

“Yeah, and it probably doesn't help I do not like the guy, and I'm sure he likes me less."

"You have beef with the dude who was kinda dating your cousin?" Ben asked. "Over what?"

“Well, it’s kinda like he was mad I was fine and she was in a coma."

"Did you put her in the coma? Or like you guys got in the same accident but you got out, but she was in a coma or something?" Danny asked.

"No," I said. "I didn't even know she existed when it happened."

"Then why's he pissed at you? You didn’t even know her."

"Because me and my cousin kinda look alike," I said.

"This dude has issues," Tyler said. "Like severe ones."

"You're telling me," I said.

"So that's what you've been dealing with all summer?" Ellie asked.

"No, thank the gods," I said. "She's only been awake for like two weeks now, and she's going to boarding school so I will definitely not be seeing her any time soon."

"That seems like a lot to deal with right after a coma," Ellie said. "Is it a specialty school like Meriwether?"

"I think so, but it also kind of seems like it's about them not wanting her to run away again," I said.

"What, so they’re gonna like lock her up in high security?" Tyler asked. "That's really gonna help."

"No, more like if they give her the space she wants she won't run type of thing," I said. "One of our friends is going with her, too, and I don't think she'd run so my cousin won’t either."

"I guess it's nice of the friend to switch schools," Ellie said. 

"Yeah, but she wanted to go to so it works out for her," I said, crossing my arms.

"At least you don't have to deal with it up close," Ben said.

"Yeah," I said.

Danny then restarted the game since it had timed out while we were talking.

"Hey," Ellie said, nudging my arm. "Do you know when Tyson's supposed to come back? He left with you so I figured you knew how to contact him."

"Oh," I said, and how did you explain your Cyclops brother going to Cyclopes forges instead of back to school? "Yeah, he's not coming back. Father sent him to a different school better suited for him."

Everyone was looking at me again.

"What?" I asked.

"Your dad sent Tyson to a different school?" Danny asked. "Why would your dad do that?"

"Right," I said then cleared my throat. "Tyson's my half brother so that's why my father gets to pick what school Tyson goes to. My father sent him to Meriwether with me and just didn't tell me about it."

"He's your brother?" Ellie asked.

"You didn't want to start with that?" Tyler asked.

"But he doesn't even look like you," Danny said, confused.

"Uh, yeah we don't look that much alike, but I got used to it over the summer so I didn't think about it," I said.

"It must have been crazy to find that out," Ben said.

I shrugged. "It wasn't that bad. I already knew I had half siblings on my father's side. Tyson wasn't even the first one I met."

"Wait, how many siblings do you have?" Danny asked.

"A lot," I said.

"And you're okay with that?" Tyler asked.

"Kind of have to be," I said. “I don’t really have a choice about it.”

"Are they, like, cool with you?" Ben asked. “Like the ones that aren’t Tyson.”

"Probably not," I said. "Like Tyson and I fought with one of our older brothers to get back one of our dead brother's heirlooms this summer so he definitely doesn't like us."

"Jesus," Tyler said. "That sounds a little more important than the cousin thing, no offense."

I held up my hands. Polyphemus was stuck on his island all the way down in the Sea of Monsters. Thalia was only over in Brooklyn.

"Is that why you only talk about your cousins?" Ellie asked.

"Kinda," I said. "Me and Tyson are also like the youngest so we don't really see them because of that, too."

"Seriously," Danny said, "how big is your family?"

"Really big," I said. "I'm never going to meet all of them."

"I think I'm good on a small family," Ben said. "I don't want to be fighting brothers for a different brother's shit. Also, wait, why wasn't your dad handling that if he wanted an heirloom back?"

"He wasn’t the one that wanted it," I said. "He didn’t really have anything to do with the whole situation.”

Aside from fathering four of us, I guess.

"Then who did want it?" Tyler asked.

"My cousin," I said.

"Which one?" Ellie asked exasperated.

"The one with the camp," I said because that was easier than explaining how Thalia would have needed it.

"Your dad couldn't tell your brother to give it back anyways?" Danny asked. "Or does he not like this cousin with the camp?"

"No, he likes that cousin," I said.

"So why didn't he help then?"

"Does sending us a ride count?" I asked.

"No, not really," Tyler said, sounding concerned. "He dropped you off to fight your older brother on your own?"

"No, he only helped us get part of the way there," I said. “I don’t think that counts as dropping us off.”

"Your dad's weird," Ellie said. "No offense."

"Okay, you really should not say anything about it, but trust me, I’m aware,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back on the couch. “But there’s definitely worse out there.”

Tantalus was a low bar, but it was still a bar.

"If you say so," Tyler said before focusing back on the game.

He and Danny actually finished properly that time with Danny winning. He won most of them so me, Ellie, and Tyler passing the controller between us while Ben gave commentary and occasionally complained about his wrist.

"So who did your hair?" Ellie asked as Tyler took another turn trying to beat Danny.

"One of my cousins' kids," I said. "She's a hairdresser, and I'd seen her work on her sister's hair so I figured it was worth asking if she'd be willing to do mine."

"It's really good," she said, reaching out for my hair and carefully separating the top layer from the underneath. "It's really even all over."

"What's it matter to you?" I asked, tilting my head for her. "Don't you only do the stripes?"

She sighed, laying my hair down gently again. "Yeah, but I wanna do something more dramatic. My parents still won't let me use permanent dye."

"Why not?" I asked. "You've had the red for at least a year. It's not like you need to bleach your hair, not for red."

"Would I need to for blue?" she asked.

I nodded. "Tracy said you have to get all the warm tones out of the hair to go blue so my hair was practically white before she put the blue in."

Ellie laughed. "That would have been crazy to see on you, your hair's so dark."

"Yeah, I know, it was weird," I said, smiling. "I looked more like my cousin than me."

"You must look a lot more like your cousins than I do," she said, toying with my hair again. "Maybe I can convince my parents now that you've totally bleached your hair and everything."

"That would so not work on my mom," I said.

"Well, yeah, she already let you do it," she said, rolling her eyes.

"She's also a little more concerned about skateboarding and skin cancer than the hair," I said.

"Yeah, no shit, you've practically blown past tanned," she said, tugging my arm free so she could line it up with hers.

Her skin wasn't nearly as pasty as last winter, but she was sitting at a 'healthy glow' tan versus my 'way too long without shade' tan.

"Yeah, maybe," I said.

"You got a new ring," she said, leaning forward. "A sailboat?"

"Yeah," I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "I can't believe you tried to act like you don't like jewelry last year. You'll have to come look at it with me when we go thrifting again."

"I didn't like pick it out or anything," I said, taking my hand back. "It's just a gift."

"You're wearing it so you must like it," she said. "Hey, have you ever considered getting your ears pierced? My parents let me this summer, but now I think I want to get more."

She tucked her hair behind her ears, revealing the small gold studs in her earlobes.

"How many more?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe the whole ear."

"Won't that hurt?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Not that bad. I won't do 'em all at once obviously, but eventually."

"Percy," Tyler interrupted. "Your turn."

"Oh, got it," I said, taking the controller from him.

I lost, but thankfully after Ellie took her turn and also lost, we switched to Halo to play PvP. Danny let me and Tyler start off, and while it took until my second attempt to get all the old muscle memory back, I was a lot better at it than the skating game. I took out Ellie and then it turned into a showdown between me and Danny dodging each other across the map until I finally got in a clear shot. Ben actually cheered for me.

"Hey, guys, not so loud," Danny's mom called from the door.

"Sorry, Mom," Danny called back and everyone quieted down.

Danny's mom came into the living room carrying shopping bags. "Oh, Percy, you're back."

"Yeah, hi, nice to see you again," I said, trying to be polite since I'd invited myself over.

"Are you staying for dinner, too?" she asked. "We're just doing frozen pizza so it's not any trouble."

"Uh," I said, looking over to the clock. "I didn't plan on it."

"I can call your mom if you want. What's your number?" she asked as she crossed the room to head to the telephone, setting the bags down on the floor.

"Okay," I said, getting up from the couch to give it to her. “Do you need any help with the bags?”

“I got it, I got it,” she told me before my mom picked up and she started talking.

I expected Mom to say no I had to come back home for dinner since I'd just come back from camp, but instead Danny's mom said, "Your mom said it's okay, but she wants you to warn her the next time you want to stay for dinner.”

“Okay,” I said then added. “Thank you for having me.”

“Of course,” Danny’s mom said with a smile before she put the phone away. “We’re happy to have you, Percy.”

I smiled back since she was being so damn unnecessarily nice to me when I hadn’t even told her I was coming. “You sure you don’t want me to help?”

“It’s fine,” she assured me, picking up the bags again.

“Ugh,” Danny groaned as she disappeared into the kitchen. “Now she’s gonna be telling me what a sweet kid you are for the next month.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“Yeah, when you came for Halloween that’s all she’d talk about for like a week,” Danny said.

“It’s like she thinks we’re terrible influences or something,” Ben said.

“Yeah, dude, you are. You broke her vase,” Tyler said.

“I apologized for that,” Ben said loudly.

“Is this about the vase?” Danny’s mom called from the kitchen. “I told you it’s okay, Ben.”

“I know,” he called back.

“Danny, get everyone what they want to drink,” Danny’s mom called.

“I got it,” Danny said. “Come on.”

He led us into the kitchen to get down cups and drinks. I got coke, of course, the real kind now that I was out of camp.

“Percy, what have you been up to all summer?” she asked as she buzzed around the kitchen getting the oven on and pulling out frozen pizza as she put the food she’d just bought away. “Do you like veggie pizza or meat?”

“Veggie’s fine,” I said. “And I was at summer camp.”

“Seriously?” Tyler asked. “You like veggie pizza?”

“You don’t have to lie to try and impress her. She already likes you,” Danny assured me.

“No, it’s really fine,” I said. “Camp only does healthy food so veggie is the only kind of pizza we get.”

“That sounds nice. What camp do you go to?” she asked.

“Um,” I said a little awkwardly. “It’s an away camp, but it’s kind of a family only sort of thing.”

She paused to look at me. “You have enough family to run a camp.”

“Yes,” everyone said in unison.

“He said he and his brother fought his other older brother for a different dead brother’s heirloom,” Tyler said. “Just his dad has too many kids.”

I winced. He probably shouldn’t say it, but how on earth could I ask him not to without sounding crazy?

“What? Fighting with brothers?” she asked as she started getting the pizzas out of their boxes. “Percy, I didn’t know you had any brothers.”

“He didn’t know either,” Danny said with a shrug.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, frowning as she paused in her flurry around the kitchen.

“You remember I told you about Tyson?” he asked. “Turns out he’s Percy’s half brother, and his dad didn’t tell him.”

“He thought I knew already, but I didn’t,” I said as if that actually made anything better.

“That’s…odd,” she said.

“It’s not the weirdest thing that’s happened to me,” I said.

“Oh, okay then,” she said, looking concerned then turned back to getting the pizza ready.

Danny started recounting our epic Halo battle to his mom as he helped her get the table ready in the dining room. Tyler and Ben helped add commentary and sound effects, and I moved every few seconds to try to find a good spot to stand in and drink my soda that wasn’t in the way and ended up in a corner with Ellie as she giggled at me.

“Honey, I’m home,” Danny’s dad called as the pizzas were getting close to done. “Where is everybody?”

“In here,” Danny’s mom called.

He joined us in the kitchen wearing a polo and khakis, looking around the room. He stopped on me “Honey, do you remember adopting a new son with blue hair?”

My whole face went red, and Ellie slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter.

“Dad,” Danny complained.

“That’s Percy, he’s from Ellie’s new school,” Danny’s mom said. “Don’t you remember him from Halloween?”

“No, I only remember everyone hiding out in the bathroom,” Danny’s dad said.

“Dad,” Danny complained again. “We weren’t hiding. We were putting on facepaint.”

“Right, the very important skulls,” he said. “Did he have blue hair then?”

“No, it was black,” Tyler told him.

“Oh,” Danny’s dad said like it all made sense. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

Ellie grabbed onto my arm like she needed me for balance as she kept laughing harder.

“Dad,” Danny practically whined. “Stop pretending you forget my friends.”

“Who said I was pretending?” he asked.

“Are you ready for dinner, hun?” Danny’s mom asked his father. “The pizza’s almost ready.”

“Okay, I’ll be one second. I need to put a few things away,” he said, leaving the kitchen.

The timer went off, and Danny’s mom started pulling out the pizzas, laying the trays out on hot pads.

“Percy, just take a plate and how many slices you want then head into the dining room,” she said as she pulled out a pizza cutter and started slicing them.

I paused, looking over at the fridge.

“What’s wrong?” Ellie asked, now calming from her laughter.

“I got dibs,” Danny said then he, Tyler, and Ben all started shoving each other to get in line for the first slice.

“Nothing,” I told Ellie.

“You’re staring at the fridge awful hard for nothing,” she said.

“Um, well, normally you’re supposed to pray before you eat, but uh,” I trailed off.

“You need something in the fridge to pray?” she asked. “I thought you said you burnt stuff.”

“At camp we burn part of our food in offering, but it’s not a good idea in a city apartment so normally I pour out juice or milk,” I said.

“Soda not allowed?” she asked, looking at the near empty cup in my hand.

“No, I don’t think they’d like it,” I said.

“Well, you can ask. Danny’s mom’s nice,” she said, nudging my arm.

“Uh, no, it’s fine—,”

“Percy’s pagan,” Ellie announced suddenly. “Is it okay if he prays before dinner? He said he has to pour out some juice for it.”

You know, being back up in the Gateway Arch with the chimera really wasn’t so bad. I could jump to safety there. There were no convenient holes in Danny’s kitchen floor.

“He has to pour out some juice?” Danny’s mom asked skeptically.

“It’s a libation,” I said. “I just pour a little out in the sink.”

She kept looking at me.

“I’m Greek,” I kept going. “It’s for the gods. Before you eat.”

“I thought you did that with booze,” she said, sounding slightly mystified. “If you want to do it with fruit juice, okay.”

She gestured towards the fridge as if saying have at it.

“Come on,” Ellie said, pulling me over to it. “Which juice?”

“Any,” I said.

She pulled out orange juice and handed the carton to me. “See, I told you she was nice.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Guess so.”

I set my cup of soda aside to open the carton and pour a little down the sink. Father I prayed.

No response like usual, but I’d done it. I put the cap back on the carton before putting it back in the fridge.

“Thanks,” I told Ellie as I grabbed my cup.

“No problem,” she said with a smile.

Chapter Text

"I don't want you guys staying inside all day playing video games," Danny's mom said as we finished up dinner. She'd been nice enough to let us get seconds and totally clear out the pizza.

"But Mom, we can't go skating with Ben's broken wrist," Danny complained.

"You can find something else to do," she said. "You're smart. You'll figure it out."

"You just want us to die of heat stroke."

"You could go to a museum," Danny's dad offer.

All of us groaned. The others were probably doing it for doing nerdy stuff in the summer, but the last time I had gone to a museum was still that time I'd gotten attacked by a Fury so no thank you.

"Can you get your cast wet?" Danny's mom asked.

"No, I gotta wrap it up to shower," Ben said sourly.

"Okay, then go to a wading pool," she said.

"With all the little kids?" Danny asked. "Come on, Mom."

"I'm just giving you suggestions," she said as she got up to start clearing the empty plates.

"Thank you, honey," Danny's dad told her as she picked up his plate. "Go help you mother."

Danny huffed, but got up and helped her.

"How much longer until you get the cast off?" Danny's dad asked Ben.

"Like right up until school," he said.

"Not too much longer then," he said. "Just pick something for a few days where you're not staring at a screen, okay?"

"Fine," Ben said.

"If the vote's between museum and a kiddie pool, I vote kiddie pool," I said.

"Well, you guys don't have to go in the kiddie pool, just me," Ben said, waving around his cast.

"We're not gonna abandon you," Tyler said.

"I'm probably still gonna have to wrap it up in plastic," he said.

"I think you'll live," Ellie said. "You can still put your feet in the water."

"That's true," he said.

"Wait, what time would we be going to the pool?" I asked.

"Afternoon probably, why?" Tyler asked.

"I don't think I actually have a swimsuit," I said.

Ever since the whole discovery of the fact I could get in water without getting wet over a year ago, it really put swimsuits on the back burner.

"Didn't you go to a summer camp all summer?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Doesn't mean I wore a swimsuit."

"Okay so we can get you a swimsuit then go swimming," Tyler said.

"Who needs a swimsuit?" Danny asked as he and his mom returned to the table.

"Percy," Ellie said.

"So we're going shopping then to the kiddie pool tomorrow," Tyler said.

"You decided all that without me?" Danny asked.

"Majority rules," Ellie said with a grin.

"Boo," Danny said.

"I think it sounds like a nice idea," Danny's mom said.

"Yes, we'll get out of the house, Mom," Danny said.

"Vitamin D is good for you," she told him.

"I know,” he said, rolling his eyes.

"So we'll meet back here tomorrow?" Tyler asked. "You're closest to the pool."

"Yeah, just don't come super early," Danny said.

"When's super early?" I asked.

"Before eleven," he said.

His mom huffed. "You should start getting on a proper sleep schedule for school."

"Yeah, I'll do it when school actually starts," he said.

"I'll just be here for eleven," I said, getting to my feet. "I gotta head out, but thanks for the food."

"You're welcome, Percy," Danny's mom said with a smile.

"Oh, hey, don't skate here. The pool doesn't like it so there’s nowhere safe to put it. Just bring as little as you can get away with it," Danny said.

"Got it," I said.

Everyone started getting up then and saying goodbye and walking us to the door. I grabbed my board and helmet then took the elevator down with Ellie, Tyler, and Ben.

"This better work," Ben said. "My mom'll kill me if I mess up my cast now."

"It'll be fine," Ellie said. "We're going to a kiddie pool."

“Promise not to start any splash fights,” Tyler said, holding up his hand like he was making a pledge.

“You say that now,” Ben complained.

Ellie shook her head.

There was definitely going to be a splash fight so I was just going to have to figure out how to secretly keep the cast from getting wet.

We said our goodbyes as we got off the elevator and headed out.

"How was dinner?" Mom asked when I got home and put my board and helmet away.

"Fine," I said. "Sorry for not telling you. I didn't know I was going to be invited."

"It's alright. I want you to have time with your friends, but I do need to have an idea of where you are," she said.

"I got it," I said. "Also, we're going to the pool tomorrow because Danny's mom wants us to get outside so I need money for an swimsuit."

"Don't you have a swimsuit?" she asked.

"Yeah, from like two years ago," I said.

"Right," she said, as she looked through her wallet. "Get a new one, please."

"Well, yeah, Mom, I'm not gonna get a used swimsuit," I said.

"No need to say it like that," she said before handing over the cash. "Be careful with that."

"I'm not going on a quest so it'll be fine.”

She frowned. "Don't jinx it."

"Fine, sorry, I just won't say anything," I said.

"Do you want to watch a movie before bed or do you need to get up bright and early tomorrow?" she asked.

"Movie," I said. "Danny said not to show up before eleven."

Mom tried to turn away quickly, but I still saw the expression that said 'teenagers'. She still let me pick a movie out, and I chose Indiana Jones.

The next day, I slept in, but still got ready and out the door mostly in time to make it to Danny’s by subway. I made sure to bring sunscreen and a towel in one of those drawstring backpacks we had lying around which was the smallest thing we had to fit sunscreen, the towel, and my clothes and stuff once we got to the pool.

I was somehow the last to show up at Danny’s place so we headed out right away.

“Okay, where’s the cheapest place to get swimsuits around here?” I asked. “Cause this thing’s probably not going to fit by next summer.”

“Unless you stop growing like Ellie,” Tyler said.

Ellie knocked her hand into his arm. “Cut it out.”

“Okay, okay,” he said, ducking to go around to Ben’s other side.

“So anyways,” I said. “Swimsuits?”

“This way,” Danny said.

He led us to a more commercial area and into a sporting goods store. We headed straight to the swimsuit section. Thankfully as it was the end of the season, a lot were on sale.

Ellie was immediately not helpful, going, “What about this?” about the worst prints she could find.

I quickly grabbed a few different sizes before anyone could gang up on me when Danny went, “Oh yeah, this is totally your color,” about a pair of bright pink board shorts.

I retreated to the dressing rooms to make sure one of them fit, and of course, it was the last one I tried on that actually fit me.

“Okay, I’ve got one,” I said, putting the other shorts down and making sure to carrying the fitting ones with me. “Let’s pay and get out of here.”

“You got boring ones,” Ellie complained.

“Yep,” I said because I did not care at all that they were plain black and nothing else.

I bought the swimshorts, and we headed over to the pool. Plenty of people were already there, and we could hear kids screaming even before we got in. I headed with the guys into the men’s side while Ellie split off into the women’s. I changed quickly since actually camp’s bathrooms maybe weren’t that bad since I knew it got cleaned well regularly and started putting on sunscreen.

“Jesus,” Tyler said.

“What?” I asked, turning around to see what they were looking at.

“You tryin’ to show us up or something?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“What do you do at your summer camp?” Danny asked. “Bulk up? I thought you only ate veggie pizza there.”

“He did have that really good beep test,” Ben said with a sigh.

Then I looked down at myself. At first I just saw the farmer’s tan because I really didn’t go around shirtless that much, but then I noticed the beginnings of some muscle definition. The other guys had more even tans, but they were all still pretty lanky and skinny.

“I’m not bulking up,” I said, going back to putting on my sunscreen. “We do stuff at camp, but I don’t like work out or anything.”

“So unfair,” Tyler said. “I wanna have muscles for not working out.”

“Think you’d have to do more than just skateboarding and gaming then,” Danny said.

“Can anyone put sunscreen on my back?” I asked.

“I got it,” Tyler said. “Danny can do Ben.”

“I’m good with that,” Ben said. “Good luck not getting burned, Percy.”

I tried looking over my shoulder at Tyler as he started putting sunscreen on me. “Please actually cover my back properly.”

My chance of burning was low, but my chance of really weird looking tan lines was extremely high.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Tyler said. “Ben shouldn’t even be talking. He’s worse than me.”

“I’m trying my best,” Ben complained as he wrapped up his cast. “I only have one hand.”

I ended up having to finish up Danny’s back after I did Tyler’s because there were still white smears.

A dad caught us as we were going out and sent us to go rinse before we entered the pool. I had to make sure I actually came out wet and not dry.

“Let’s go find, Ellie,” Danny said, leading the way out.

We were barely outside for two seconds before Ellie called, “Guys!”

I turned, and almost didn’t recognize her at first. I hadn’t expected her to wear a bikini, let alone a red one that matched her hair dye. It couldn’t be her first time wearing it because her tan lines matched it. She actually wasn’t as twiggy as I assumed she’d be under her loose t-shirts and cargo pants. Then I looked away because that probably counted as staring.

“Hey’d you get your back done?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, I got some mom to help me out,” she said. “Let’s get going. I think I spotted a free chair.”

We followed her around to the wading pool where the really little kids were, and dumped our stuff on the one chair that was free. I leaned in towards Ellie as the guys headed for the water. “Okay, can you check if there’s actually sunscreen on my back? Not that I don’t trust the guys, but—,”

“You don’t want to be a lobster tomorrow?” she asked with a smile.

“Yeah, I’d rather not,” I said.

“Okay, turn around.”

I did.

“You look fine,” she said, running her hand quickly over my back. “It definitely feels like you’re covered.”

“Okay, great, thanks,” I said.

“Nice tan, by the way,” she said, grinning when I shot her a look.

“I don’t go running around shirtless,” I said as we headed towards the wading pool. The guys had wisely picked the opposite side of the pool from the little kids.

“Yeah, I can tell,” she said.

I stepped into the water and had to resist a flinch. I hadn’t been in a pool in a really long time, and it did not feel the same as the ocean or even freshwater. The chlorine kept the pool sanitary, but it felt off.

“You step on something?” Ellie asked.

“Huh? No, I’m good.”

She gave me a suspicious look, but didn’t press it. 

Danny and Tyler did have a bit of a splash fight away from Ben and the kids, but Ellie and I stuck by Ben. The other two ended up knocking it off as they caught the looks the moms were giving them. Then we all ended up sitting down with just our legs stretched out in the water which didn’t even come up high enough to cover our knees. The whole group filled me in on their summer since I'd complained all yesterday. They'd gone to a day camp together that covered most of the summer, but started later and ended earlier than school so they'd had more time for skating. Tyler and Ben gave me a blow by blow of his injury that had resulted from that extra time on the board, making it sounds extra devastating and dramatic for just falling off a railing and sticking his hand out.

Unlike me, they all complained about their camp being lame, but it sounded like they were all aging out of it anyways as they all had turned fourteen before me.

"Hopefully Mom lets me be done with camp next year," Ben said. "I mean, we're going into high school now."

"Well, we are, anyways," Danny said, grinning over at me and Ellie since Meriwether went from ages 12 to 18.

"Shut up," Ellie said. “It’s still the same work.”

"Do you guys get to do dances and all that stuff?" Tyler asked.

Ellie shook her head. "Nah, we just have the talent show."

"That sucks," Danny said.

"Can't we invite you or something?" Ben asked. "That has to be allowed."

"Are you gonna remember to check?" Ellie asked, skeptical.

"Yeah, 'course," he said, not sounding that convincing.

"Well, we'll go if you remember," I said, and he laughed.

It got too hot sitting in the sun, and we all took turns dunking ourselves in the proper sized pool except for poor Ben who could only walk out to the center of the wading pool and back with his cast.

Every time I crossed from one pool to the other I spotted some new piece of trash, and I couldn't just leave it there. As far as I'd seen there weren't naiads attached to pools, but still. I always picked it up and threw it away properly.

"Are you like trying to get babysitting gigs or something?" Danny asked as I sat back down at the edge of the wading pool.

"Huh?" I asked.

"You keep picking up the trash," he said. "Do you always try to impress the moms?"

He gestured towards them on the other side of the pool, and it definitely looked like a couple of them were looking at me.

"No," I said, avoiding looking at the moms. "It's just gross to leave it there, dude."

"It's gross touching it," Ellie said, making a face.

"Cover your hand then," I said and shrugged. "Wash it after, I don't know."

"You are such a goodie two shoes," Tyler said, nearly laughing. "Danny's mom's gonna give him so much shit."

"Man, shut up," Danny said. "She's on my case with grades enough as it is."

"You could always join us at Meriwether," I joked. "Because I guarantee my grades were worse."

"Oh yeah?" Danny challenged. "How bad?"

"Never got above a C, and usually got D's and F's," I said.

"Woah," Tyler said.

"Like even as a kid?" Ben asked. "In elementary school?"

I nodded. “Pretty much.”

“How?” he asked. “You don’t even do anything in elementary school.”

I shrugged.

Ellie pulled her legs in, wrapping her arms around them.

“What?” I asked her.

She shook her head, looking away as she said, “Those schools were shitty. They shouldn’t count.”

I sighed, shifting to sit cross legged and putting my hands on my lower legs. “Well, it’s not like I’m going back to any of them, and they kinda don’t count at Meriwether.”

“Everything good?” Tyler asked. He sat the closest to me and Ellie and he leaned forward to try and look over at her.

“It’s fine,” I said even though Ellie was definitely still grumpy.

“Are we gonna stay any longer?” Ben asked. “I kinda want to go get ice cream.”

“Oh, I am so down for that,” Tyler said.

“Hey, no running!” the lifeguard called, interrupting us.

We turned towards a little kid running at the edge of the wading pool. He ignored the lifeguard and promptly tripped, ending up face down in the water.

I quickly got up on one knee, prepared to move if the kid’s mother didn’t show up, and pulled the water away from the kid’s face. Then a woman came and picked the kid up, setting him on his feet again.

I released the water.

He looked on the verge of tears until the woman kneeled down in front of him, petting his head before giving him a kiss.

“You okay?” she asked him.

The boy nodded.

She sighed, tension draining out of her. “That’s why we don’t run near the pool.”

She guided him away from the water and back towards their bags and a guy around the woman’s age who looked as concerned as she had.

“I think you can sit down, Percy,” Tyler said. “The kid’s fine.”

“I know,” I said, settling back on my heel. “I just wanted to make sure.”

Ellie got to her feet first. “Let’s go get ice cream. This wading pool’s not gonna do anything to actually keep us cool.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Danny said.

We grabbed our stuff, and headed back into the separate locker rooms. We rinsed off and got dressed then met back up with Ellie.

“How’s your hair already dry?” she asked me. “Did you sneak in a hair dryer?”

“Huh?” I asked, feeling my own hair. Fuck. I hadn’t kept my hair wet after showering, and now everyone was looking at me. Where was the Mist when you needed it? “It just dries fast.”

Nobody looked like they believed me.

“Well, it definitely wasn’t a hair dryer,” Danny said. “We would’ve seen it.”

“Can we go get the ice cream now?” I asked. “Let’s not stand around baking in the sun.”

“Okay, sure,” Tyler said, a little sarcastic. “This way.”

We only had to walk a couple blocks to reach the ice cream shop. It took me way too long to decide on a flavor, and I ended up getting cotton candy. We got all of our cones and headed outside, having to lick like mad to keep it from dripping all over our fingers. Ellie had gotten chocolate and somehow managed to get it all over her face.

“Did I get it?” she asked after swiping her face with the back of her hand.

“No,” I said, looking at the smear over her lips while Danny said, “Yeah, you totally got it.”

She wiped at her face again. It was still kinda there, but it was better than it was before and likely as good as it would get without water of something.

“Yeah, you’re good,” I told her.

“Mom’s gonna yell at me for ruining my appetite,” Danny said with a sigh.

I checked my watch. “Uh, yeah, I’m gonna have to get going so I’m home in time.”

“Okay, well, we’ll probably do something tomorrow,” Tyler said.

“Just show up tomorrow same time and we’ll do whatever,” Danny said, waiving a hand around.

“Please, no more gaming,” Ben complained. “It’s not cool to torture me like that.”

“Fine, not gaming,” he said, rolling his eyes before turning to me. “We’ll see you.”

“Alright, bye, guys,” I said, giving them a little wave as I headed towards the nearest subway stop.

Ellie did the little wave mockingly back at me as the other guys said bye. I flipped her off, and she laughed.

I made it home right as my mom did.

“How’d things go at the pool?” she asked me as she put her stuff down.

“Good,” I said.

“Did you put on sunscreen?” she asked.

“Yes, I put it on,” I said. “Also, on a scale of one to ten, how bad is it that I didn’t leave my hair wet and my friends noticed?”

She frowned at me then sighed. “Honestly, I have no idea, but I don’t think dry hair is going to lead them to figuring out that Greek gods are real.”

“That’s a really good point,” I said.

Chapter Text

-Percy does have his schedule from school

In the week leading up to my birthday, I spent most of my time with Ellie, Tyler, Danny, and Ben. We didn’t always go to the pool, but we went often enough. I made sure not to totally dry off any time I got out of the water. Mom had me come home for dinner with her, though, and I spent the evenings testing out my new electric guitar.

“What do you want to do for your birthday?” Mom asked a couple days ahead of time.

“Can we do Montauk or is that weird?”

“No, why would it be weird?” she asked.

“I dunno,” I said. “We had a monster kinda find us there.”

“If that’s where you wanna go, that’s where we’ll go,” Mom said. “I’ll try to get us the usual cabin.”

We left the city on my actual birthday, picking up cake along the way. Mom pulled it out after dinner once we’d made it to the cabin. Mom had forgotten any candles, but that didn’t matter to me.

“Happy Birthday, Percy,” she said before pressing a kiss to my head and wrapping me up in a hug.

“Thanks,” I said, leaning into her.

We ate the cake out on the cabin’s little porch, watching the waves and talking. I accidentally ended up eating nearly the whole thing.

“It’s good you’re not a little kid anymore,” Mom said as she got up to throw out the tray the cake had come on. “You’d be running around like crazy after eating this, but now I’m a little more concerned you’re gonna start growing like a weed.”

“Yeah, I wish,” I said, slouching down in my seat.

“There’s no way you don’t get a growth spurt,” she said before ducking into the cabin.

I spent most of the weekend in the water. Mom swam in the morning for exercise, but then she retreated to the beach to read or write. I’d have gone exploring further on the ocean floor, but Mom made me promise to talk to her every thirty minutes or she’d call the coast guard on me. Considering she’d called CPS for Tyson, I wasn’t about to test her. Even with so much time under the water, I still finished the weekend with my farmer’s tan totally evened out.

Once we got back to New York, Mom had me try on all my school clothes, and nothing fit anymore except for some of the larger shirts.

“I know you’re gonna go thrifting with your friends, but I want to make sure you’ve got socks and underwear, and especially new pants,” Mom said. “Skating’s a lot of wear on them.”

“I got it,” I said.

We went shopping together, and the next day, I went thrifting with my friends at our usual favorites. For the first couple stores, we stuck together, but the other guys were more than happy to leave me and Ellie at the jewelry while they continued on to the shirts and jackets.

“Seriously,” Ellie said as she rotated a stand full of earrings, “I think you should get piercings.”

“What would I even do with them?”

“Wear jewelry, duh,” she said. “Just get silver. All your stuff matches already except for the one necklace.”

“I’m not getting rid of that one,” I said.

“I wasn’t telling you to,” she said then started giggling.

“What?” I asked.

“Look, look,” she said, motioning for me to come look in the mirror the store had set up.

I leaned in, and she held up a pair of earrings to my ears.

“To match your pearl ring,” she said before bursting into laughter.

I rolled my eyes. My ring might have a pearl in it, but it looked cool. The earrings looked like something a grandma would wear. “I don’t think it’s my color.”

She calmed down as she put them back.

“What about these ones?” I asked, reaching farther back in the display to grab a pair of dangling earrings.

“For you?” she asked. “I didn’t think you’d go for dangly earrings.”

“Not for me, for you,” I said, offering out the earrings with a cluster of bright red beads at the top with two delicate gold chains hanging down from each with another red bead on the end.

She took the earrings then held them up to her own ears. “Oh yeah, I’m totally getting these even though Mom said I can’t wear dangling earrings yet.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“They take a long time to heal, and it’s easier to irritate them with this kinda stuff,” she said, gesturing with the earrings.

“Makes sense,” I said. I probably wouldn’t have to deal with that if I did ever end up getting my ears pierced. I could just put a little water on there and be done with it. Not that I’d wear dangly earrings. That seemed like a great way to get my ear ripped apart.

“Alright, come on, time for clothes,” Ellie said, leaving the jewelry set up.

I pulled out a few shirts, but didn’t end up actually picking any of them to buy. We headed to the next place which had more jackets and jerseys and less jewelry. The guys headed straight for the jerseys while Ellie wandered off towards the pants, but this time I followed the guys.

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask,” I said as I glanced over all the different jerseys for the New York teams as well as plenty of others. “Do you guys know how to get Rangers tickets?”

“Like the hockey team?” Danny asked. “I thought you were only into the Knicks.”

“Well, yeah, but turns out I’ve got family on the team so, I don’t know, figure I should go at least once,” I said.

They all stared at me, even Tyler who barely paid attention to sports.

“You’ve got family on the team?” Ben asked. “Who?”

“Uh, Jake Spurling, he’s one of my cousin’s kids,” I said.

“What?” Danny asked flatly. “What do you mean Jake Spurling is one of your cousin’s kids?”

“I mean one of my cousins met a woman and had a kid, and his name was Jake Spurling, and now he’s on the Rangers,” I said.

Ben squinted at me, leaning in. “You do kind of look like him.”

“What? No way, that’s not possible,” Danny said. “Tell me one thing about him and prove that you even know him.”

“I don’t know, man, he’s from Boston,” I said because I couldn’t go talking about him being a son of Hermes or having flying skates.

“Everyone knows he’s from Boston, say something else,” he insisted.

“I didn’t ask him for trivia about his life. I didn’t even realize he was actually on the team until he was leaving for training camp,” I said. “He’s got little silver wings on the heels of his inline skates. He taught me to powerslide.”

“He taught you to powerslide?” Danny asked. “There’s no way he did that.”

“He does have little wings on his skates, though,” Ben pointed out.

“I can powerslide now so I can kind of prove it,” I said with a shrug.

“Are you guys actually going to get anything?” Ellie asked, wandering over towards us with a couple pairs of pants slung over her arm.

“Did you know that Percy’s related to Jake Spurling?” Ben asked.

“Am I supposed to know who that is?” she asked.

“He plays for the Rangers,” Ben said.

“Okay,” she said, unimpressed. “Cool, I guess.”

Dylan sighed heavily. “Why do we even bother? You don’t know anything about sports.”

“That’s not true,” she said then smiled. “I know the team’s name.”

“Wow, what an accomplishment,” Ben said sarcastically.

“Sports are really not that important,” Tyler said. “Just skateboarding.”

“Well, they are now if Percy’s whoever is on the team now,” Danny said gesturing towards me. “Just get tickets from the ticket office so you don’t get scammed, but for right now, we need to get you a Rangers jersey.”

“Yeah, they got plenty,” Ben said, waving his good hand over the racks.

“Alright, we can try,” I said.

“I’m gonna go try these on while you do that,” Ellie said.

“Kay, we’ll probably still be here,” I told her.

She smiled before heading towards the back of the store and the changing rooms.

Meanwhile, the rest of us started digging through the jerseys. There really weren’t that many for hockey to begin with. One we found had no name on the back, but eventually Ben found a Richter jersey.

“He’s a goalie, not a winger, but it’s the thought that counts,” Ben said, holding it out to me.

“This thing is giant,” I said, holding it up to myself.

“It’s a hockey jersey, it’s supposed to be,” Dylan said.

“Are you guys done yet?” Ellie asked, coming back to us with only one pair of pants still on her arm.

“Yeah, we got Percy a jersey,” Dylan said, pointing towards me.

“You’re not actually going to wear that, are you?” she asked, skeptical. “You can fit like two of you in that thing.”

“Come on, he’s still got room to grow,” Tyler said, “Unlike some of us.”

Ellie scowled at him.

“Ooh, you made her mad,” Ben said.

“Shut up,” she said, stalking off towards the cash.

“I’m gonna get this, you guys just do whatever,” I said, gathering up the jersey to catch up to Ellie.

I got in line behind her where she stood behind a woman asking the lady at the register questions about some jacket.

“Hey,” I said cautiously because Ellie was still frowning. “Sorry about all that.”

“You don’t need to apologize for other people,” she said. “It’s not like he was wrong, anyways.”

“Yeah, but still,” I said even though that wasn’t much of an argument.

“Forget about it,” she said then stepped up as the other lady left with her jacket.

I went and paid for the jersey after Ellie finished. It was honestly more than I had intended to spend on it, but getting a new jersey would be even worse. I met up with Ellie and the other guys at the front of the store. Tyler had his arm slung around Ellie’s shoulders, and she wasn’t shoving him off so they must have made up.

“Alright, let’s head out,” Danny said once he spotted me.

“Can we be done?” Ben asked. “I want something to drink and to sit down.”

“I’m good with that,” Tyler said, letting Ellie go as they started walking.

“What about food?” I asked.

“I’m down,” Danny said.

We argued about where to go and what kind of food to get, but we ended up at a pizza place because it was right there and cheap enough for us to get something. Everyone got one slice and a soda except for me and Danny who got two slices.

“I don’t know how you can eat that much,” Ellie said, looking at Danny warily as he ate the biggest bite he could of his pizza.

“Hollow leg,” Ben joked before taking a loud slurp of his soda.

 “It’s gross,” she said, and took a not so dainty bite herself of her pizza.

“I’m not gross, Percy is, getting olives and shit on his pizza,” Danny said, talking with his mouth half full.

I shrugged. “Tastes good to me.”

Everyone gave me skeptical looks. I just ate another bite of my pizza. I finished eating before everyone else and ended up going back for a third slice of pizza which completely cleared me out of cash.

We hit one last store afterwards before splitting up to head home.

“Hey, Mom?” I asked when she got home around dinner time. “Can we go to a Rangers’ game at some point this season?”

“A Rangers game?” she asked as she put her stuff down. “Since when have you been into the Rangers?”

“Did I not tell you?” I asked. “I’m related to Jake Spurling who, well, he was a rookie last year. Anyways, I think we should go to a game.”

“Whose kid is he?” she asked.

“The messenger’s.”

“He does athletics, too, right?”

“Yeah, so athlete kid.”

“Okay, I’m fine with going, but we’re not going to be down by the glass or anything so you’re not going to get a chance to talk to him really,” Mom warned me.

“No, I get that, it’s fine,” I said.

“I’ll look into it when I get the chance,” she promised. “But right now, I just want to get dinner going.”

“Yeah, of course,” I said, getting out of her way.

She changed then had me help her with the chopping, and I told her about the different stuff that we found while shopping, including the jersey.

“I have no idea how to wash a jersey, but I guess we’ll figure that out,” she said.

“I think you just wash it like normal,” I said.

“I sure hope so,” she said.

I glanced over at her before pouring the chopped veggies into the pot to steam. “Hey, Mom?”

“What?” she asked.

“Um,” I stalled. “Would it be okay if I got my ears pierced?”

“You want to get your ears pierced now?” she asked, very skeptical.

“I dunno, maybe,” I said. “Ellie got hers done.”

“That’s between her and her parents,” she said. “And you don’t sound very sure. I’m also a little concerned because you get in fights.”

“I’m not going to wear anything that would get caught,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” she said, but she didn’t say it the way she did when we’d fought, more like a teacher’s instruction rather than yelling at me. “Piercings are permanent—,”

“So is bleaching my hair,” I pointed out.

“Which you didn’t really ask me about either, but there are risks to piercings that aren’t there for dying your hair,” she said, giving me a serious look. “Dyed hair won’t get infected and you can eventually chop it all off, and I’m hoping you cut it before you go on another quest so it doesn’t get caught or grabbed or anything, but it will be much worse if that happens with a piercing. I’m not convinced you’re serious about it. If you still want this in a year, we can revisit the topic.”

“Fine,” I said in a huff. It wasn’t like it was that serious. I didn’t need to have a piercing.

I turned back to see her watching me rather than the food she was cooking. “What?”

“Is that okay?”

“It’s fine,” I said, leaning back against the counter and crossing my arms since my part of the cooking was done.

“Okay,” she said, refocusing on cooking. Then she cleared her throat. “Feeling more ready for school next week?”

“I guess,” I said. “Probably could do with a few more shirts.”

“How much was the jersey?” she asked.

“Cheaper than getting it new,” I answered.

I pretended not to see her wince.

“You better wear that thing a lot,” she said.

“I don’t know, it’s kinda giant,” I said.

“You have a few things like that,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, gifts from cabin six, not a jersey,” I said. “It’ll be like wearing a sail.”

“That should be right in your wheelhouse then.”

“Ha ha,” I said. “You’re so funny.”

“Please just wear it more than once,” she said.

“Okay, I will,” I promised.

“Great,” she said.

We talked more about planning for school over dinner. I’d gotten my schedule in the mail. I had a new homeroom teacher, band before lunch, Spanish after, and PE at the end of the day. Mom had her new schedule, too. She would be a little late on Mondays and Wednesdays as one of her classes ran until 5:30, but she’d had to take it so she could work mornings. Mom had also gotten us appointments to get our hair cut for that Saturday.

“What do you want to do about the color?” she asked. “The blue’s kinda coming out.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said with a sigh. I didn’t wash my hair that frequently, but we’d been to the pool and the ocean so the blond was definitely peaking out. “I was thinking of asking Ellie since she dyes her hair. That’s gotta be less expensive than getting a hair dresser to do it.”

“If that’s what you want, I’m okay with it,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll ask her.”

I got a chance to ask Ellie the next day as we were back at Danny’s gaming, and she looked at me like I’d just gotten her the best gift for her birthday.

“Wait, you’re really going to let me do your hair?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah, I mean, I don’t want to do it on my own head so,” I said.

“Okay, okay,” she said, grinning and clenching her fists tightly like she was about to burst from excitement. “I have most of the supplies at home already. Do you want to stick with blue or could I do something else?”

“What would the something else be exactly?” I asked, a little concerned.

“I don’t know, like galaxy or something so still blue but maybe some purple too or something,” she said, eyes trained on my hair.

“Alright, I guess,” I said because maybe that would go better with my black roots.

“Good luck, bro,” Tyler said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “She’s gonna turn your hair neon green if you’re not careful.”

“Ugh,” she said, dropping her hands and turning to glare at Tyler. “I wouldn’t make his hair neon green. It’s not a pretty color.”

“Good because I’d rather not look like a tennis ball,” I said, and Tyler laughed.

“You’d be a very tan tennis ball,” Ben said. “I heard that look’s in.”

I laughed. “Oh yeah, from who?”

He shrugged. “Tennis players?”

“What tennis players do you even know?” Danny asked.

“Uh,” Ben said.

“Well, now we know who not to take fashion advice from,” Tyler said.

“Shut up,” he said, but he was on the verge of laughing.

“Anyways,” Ellie said, turning back to me. “Just tell me when you’re getting your hair cut, and I’ll dye it after.”

And somehow a two person operation turned into everyone’s plan for Sunday afternoon. I got more trimmed than I had with Tracy so that I’d have more time before I had to get it cut again. The other hairstylist didn’t do as good a job shaping it and styled it a little weird, but it’s not like I wasn’t immediately washing it out to be able to dye my hair again.

The next morning, I made sure my hair was clean with no product in it and met up with everyone at a Sally Beauty store near Ellie’s.

“So do you really know what you’re doing?” Danny asked as she led the way into the store packed with dye and brushes and straighteners and wigs and anything else you could want hair wise.

“Of course,” she said. “I’ve been dying my hair for a while.”

She stopped halfway up the aisle by all the temporary hair dyes. She picked out a few different blues and purples, squinting at the example photos on the shelf. “How do these look?” she asked, holding up jars of light and dark blue and the darkest purple they had.

“Sure,” I said.

“Well, do you like it?” she asked.

“Yeah, it looks good,” I said.

“Okay,” she said, marching past us to head to the cash register.

“Hey,” I said, squeezing between the guys to catch up to her. “I’m paying.”

“I know, but I can bring them up to the counter,” she said.

“You guys need any help?” the woman at the register asked as she looked over the dye Ellie had set on the counter.

“No, we’ve got it,” Ellie said with a smile. “Just this.”

The cashier didn’t pass any other comments, scanned the jars, and gave us the total. I paid, but Ellie grabbed the bag before I could.

“Let’s go,” she said, grinning as she clutched the bag. “I’m so excited.”

She led the way back to her place, and we were apparently too slow as she kept telling us to hurry up.

“We’re back,” Ellie called once she opened the door. Then she turned to us and said, “Just make sure to  take your shoes off.”

There was a perfectly neat shoe rack by the door, but everyone’s shoes ended up in a big pile, and I somehow ended up going last.

“How’d it go?” a woman asked.

“We got everything,” Ellie said.

I stood up from pretending I could neaten up my shoes and saw a woman that definitely had to be Ellie’s mom. She was a couple inches shorter with the same dirty blond hair and similar face shape, but the weirdest part was how typical her mom looked. She hadn’t dyed her hair, and she wore a regular t-shirt with a v-neck and skinny jeans rather than Ellie’s loose t-shirt and cargo pants.

“I pulled out the old towels for you,” her mom said before turning towards me. “You must be Percy. It’s nice to finally meet you, I’m Katherine, Eleanor’s mother.”

“Mom,” Ellie complained as the other guys chuckled.

“What?” Katherine asked.

“Come on, let’s go,” Ellie said grumpily, moving past her mother.

“It was nice meeting you,” I told Katherine before following everyone else.

“Okay, I got everything set up earlier,” Ellie said as she flicked on the lights to the hall bathroom. “Like the gloves, and clips, and a stool, and all that.”

The bathroom wasn’t large as Danny’s, and wouldn’t fit all of us. I had to squeeze past the guys to get in. I took a seat on the stool, facing all the towels and bowl and gloves piled up on the counter.

“Ready?” she asked, already pulling the dye out of the bag and setting it on the table.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said.

“Okay, put that around your shoulders so we don’t dye your shirt,” she said, passing one of the towels to me.

I draped it over my shoulders like she asked.

“How long is this going to take?” Danny asked.

“A while,” she said. “He’s got like a lot of hair.”

“That’s okay, we can do the entertainment,” Tyler said.

“No, there can’t be any distractions,” Ellie said, pulling a glove on.

“Are you serious?” Ben asked.

“No, duh,” she said, causing the glove to snap before grinning. “I’d have kicked you guys out if I did.”

“Good thing it’s not a problem then,” Danny said.

The guys didn’t actually act much like entertainment and kept telling Ellie she’d missed a spot as she tried to work through all the layers of my hair until she snapped at them. Then they let the conversation turn to high school and the new classes and teachers they’d have. Ellie and I didn’t have as much to add because it would be same old same old for us at Meriwether. We had band class together still, and that’s all that mattered. 

“There, done,” she said after what seemed like forever.

I turned my head to try to get a better look at it in the mirror. She’d done the purple near my roots, the dark blue in the middle and the light blue at the ends. “It looks good. Thanks.”

“Well, don’t thank me until we get it rinsed out and it doesn’t become a big mess,” she said, pulling off the gloves.

We turned on the tv for something to do during the processing time, and I had to lean forward to make sure I didn’t get anything on the couch. Ellie’s mom asked us a couple times if we wanted anything, and she got some snacks out for us when we said we were hungry.

Then came the worst part rinsing out my hair as Ellie had me kneel beside the bath tub and lean my head over it. She used a measuring cup to pour cold water over my head which was not comfortable even with the bathmat and an extra towel under my knees, but I wasn’t about to try to stick my head under the tub faucet which was low and close to the edge of the tub. Ellie was careful as she rinsed out my hair since I couldn’t tell her that she didn’t really need to worry about the water getting in my face since that wasn’t a problem for me.

“Letting him shower would have been easier,” Danny said as Ellie got another cup full of water.

“For real,” I said.

“I’m trying not to have it all bleed together. Besides, I’m almost done,” she said then poured yet another cupful of water over me. “There.”

“I’m not doing that again,” I said as I sat back on my heels. “I’m showering next time.”

“Fine,” she said, moving back so I could stand up. “You want me to blow dry it?”

“Are you trying to become a hairdresser?” Tyler asked.

“I just wanna see how it looks dry,” she said huffily.

“Sure, let’s just do it,” I said, sitting back down on the stool.

I helped it along a little just to get it all done faster.

“What do you think?” Ellie asked once she’d turned off and set down the hair dryer.

I turned my head this way and that. The cut wasn’t as good as Tracy’s, and it felt mean, but her dye job had been better too, but I wasn’t exactly surprised by that. It was still way better than I could have done on my own. I smiled at Ellie through the mirror. “It’s really good. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, smiling back at me.

“Yeah, great, we’re all happy, can we stop obsessing over Percy’s hair now?” Danny asked.

“Yes, please,” Tyler said, putting his hands together like he was praying.

“Seconded,” Ben said.

“Get outta the bathroom,” Ellie said as I laughed. “Nobody made you be in here.”

Chapter Text

I was nearly late to the first day of school even with Mom hassling me to get going. I jumped the turnstile in the subway to make the train, the doors shutting right behind me. There wasn’t even a seat free after. I sighed and held onto one of the poles.

I squeezed my way out of the crowd to take the steps two at a time before skating the rest of the way to school. I flipped my board up and kept running to my new homeroom. Only a few other stragglers rushed into their own rooms as I passed. I ducked into the right room right as the bell rang.

“Percy!”

I turned around as I unclasped my helmet.

Ellie sat in one of the chairs towards the back, waving enthusiastically at me.

“While you are barely on time, Mr. Jackson,” the teacher at the front of the room said. She looked older than Mrs. Meredith and a lot more stern, wearing a suit to class and her hair slicked back into a bun, “I would appreciate it if you would arrive earlier in the future.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, quickly shucking the helmet and propping my board up against the wall next to the one already there. I darted to the free seat behind Ellie. She turned towards me, but I shooed her back to looking forward. She rolled her eyes but turned back to the teacher.

“If everyone is ready, we will begin introductions followed by orientation,” she said, and she talked like she was giving a lecture, not friendly like Mrs. Meredith did. “I am Mrs. Nora. I would prefer everyone enjoy their time in class and with learning and therefore ask you not to be disruptive towards your fellow students. If you need any help or have any questions, I am always available for you. Now, if you could one by one, state your name and how long you have been with us here at Meriwether, and your favorite school subject.”

All of our classmates went one by one, up and down the rows, listing their names and years and favorite subjects.

“I’m Ellie MacKenzie,” Ellie said when it was her turn. “This is gonna be my third year at Meriwether, and my favorite subject is English.”

There were only a couple more people then it was my turn to go last.

“I’m Percy Jackson, this is my second year at Meriwhether, and my favorite subject is math,” I said.

Ellie turned in her seat to give me a skeptical look. I shrugged in response. She shook her head and faced forward.

“Thank you for your participation,” Mrs. Nora said. “I will begin orientation.”

Like Mrs. Meredith the year before, she started with an explanation of how the school worked for the new kids before the grand lessons for the year in each subject. I did my best to pay attention. She wasn’t exactly as energetic as Mrs. Meredith had been in her lessons, and she kinda reminded me of some of my suckier teachers at my other schools. The stern ones never liked me since I was always too fidgety.

Ellie didn’t seem to have any problem at all paying attention. She shifted every so often, but she didn’t fidget or look elsewhere or jiggle her leg. Maybe that was because she only had dyscalculia and no ADHD.

Then Mrs. Nora gave us a break, and I could relax. She asked us all to take a lap around the room, and some of the others grumbled, but it didn’t bother me any. I was up in a flash and lapping people.

“Perseus,” Mrs. Nora called.

I grimaced then tried to not show that as I turned to her. “I normally go by Percy.”

“Very well,” she said, motioning me over. She moved my away from the other students and spoke quietly enough to not be overheard. “I could see you were struggling to pay attention, and I’ve been made aware that you have ADHD.”

I tried not to grimace again because this sounded like the part where I get reamed out.

“Do you have any tricks for staying focused in the classroom or anything else I should know concerning your ADHD?” she asked.

“Uh,” I said stupidly, stalling out for a moment. “Breaks are good. The big lessons are hard, but last year I was fine with, you know, just getting my own work done normally and having enough time to finish stuff.”

“And you worked with Miss Angela last year, correct?” she asked.

“Well, she was with Tyson, but yeah she was there,” I said with a shrug.

“I see,” she said. “Thank you for the information, you can rejoin your fellow classmates.”

“Okay,” I said and took another lap before Mrs. Nora called us back to our seats.

Ellie gave me a curious look, but I said nothing as Mrs. Nora started talking.

Mrs. Nora talked to a couple other students each break until the bell rang for lunch.

“Hey, what do you think of Mrs. Nora?” Ellie asked once we’d found some seats. “What’d she say to you during the break?”

“I dunno yet,” I said. “I thought she’d be mean, but she was nice about my ADHD.”

Ellie nodded. “She’s probably gonna talk to me too then. They did last year, and I don’t think they hire people here if they’re mean. ”

“Maybe,” I said, though that wasn’t the only way to be a bad teacher, just an easy way to be one.

“I mean that’s why Apollo sent you here, right?” she asked with a grin.

“Shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes even though it had to be part of the reason. “And you shouldn’t use his name like that.”

“What do you call him again? Phoebus?” she asked.

“Yeah it’s one of his epithets,” I said.

“How many does he have?” she asked.

“A lot.”

“Do they mean anything?” she asked.

“Of course, pretty sure that’s the whole point of epithets,” I said, “Phoebus means shining or bright for the light stuff, Delios means from Delos since he born on Delos, Latoios means son of Leto because he’s the son of Leto.”

Ellie nodded. “Okay, I get. This is like before people had last names type stuff like how MacKenzie is just son of Kenzie.”

“Pretty much.”

“Hey, if you had to have an epithet what would it be?” she asked.

I shrugged. I’d obviously have son of Poseidon as an epithet, maybe slayer of Procrustes, but I couldn’t just say that. “I’d probably end up with something like Polytlas.”

“What does that mean?”

“Long suffering,” I said with a grin. “It’s one of Odysseus’s epithets, you know, the guy who went on the Odyssey.”

“I know what the Odyssey is,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Did you pick that because of all the schools you had to go through?”

“That’s one reason,” I said.

“Do I wanna know the rest?”

“Probably not,” I said then shoved food into my mouth. I was still kinda hungry when I finished all of it. I’d have to make sure to take more in the future.

When we went out into the courtyard after lunch, I started heading for the pond like normal.

“Where are you going?” Ellie asked. “You don’t want to play four square?”

“Uh,” I stalled.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she said. “I know it’s kinda lame.”

I shrugged. “Four square’s fine. I just…don’t play it.”

“Why not if you don’t mind it?” she asked.

“Well, I hung out with Tyson, and no one else wanted to play with him, so no one wanted to play with me either,” I said shrugging again.

“Not at all?” she asked.

“Pretty much,” I said. “You didn’t like Tyson at first either, remember?”

She pressed her lips together. “Yeah, but, like, it was just cause he was so tall. I got over it. They had a whole year to get used to it.”

It wasn’t because he was tall. Everyone could sense he wasn’t human even if they couldn’t see it.

“It’s whatever,” I said. “It’s not like he’s coming back to school here.”

“It doesn’t really seem like whatever,” she mumbled.

“I’m gonna go sit by the pond. You can do what you want,” I said, walking away.

She sighed, but followed me over to the bench. I slumped down, crossing my arms and jiggling my leg.

“Do you want Tyson to come back to school here?” she asked. “I mean, you said he was your brother.”

I shook my head. “Nah, it wasn’t really all that good for him or anyone else.”

“You still get to see him though, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, I can call him and stuff.”

“That’s not so bad then,” she said. “Still sounds like it kinda sucked with the way he left.”

“A little bit, maybe,” I said. “I wasn’t really given a heads up.”

“You weren’t really given a heads up when he came here either,” she said, tilting her head.

“Yeah, true.”

We sat quietly for a few moments, and Ellie turned around in her seat to see everyone else hanging out or playing four square or whatever. Then she turned back. “Is this seriously all you did whenever you guys were out here?”

I shrugged. “We liked the water.”

She gave me a skeptical look. “You didn’t seem all that jazzed about the pool.”

“That’s cause the pool is gross and full of chlorine.”

“You that worried about your hair?” she asked.

“It’s not the hair,” I said. “Ocean water’s better, but fresh water like this pond is the next best thing.”

“Yeah, but you can’t swim in that pond,” she pointed out. “Or any of the ocean water around here.”

“Oh yeah, definitely not,” I said. “They kinda tell you that the EPA fixed things like pollution in the water, but it so hasn’t.”

The satyrs and nymphs alike complained about how it never did enough to stop all of the harm.

“Maybe whatever weird school you went to did that. I feel like we got told to recycle or we were going to kill everybody.”

“Seems a little extreme,” I said. “Not that it’s not important to not be wasteful or whatever, but I don’t think that’s super encouraging to actually like get you to do it.”

She chuckled. “I think they just didn’t want us to throw shit on the ground during recess.”

“Did it work?”

She shook her head.

The bell rang, and we all headed back inside. Mrs. Nora cleared her throat to get our attention, then went back to giving her grand lessons from the morning. I tried harder to pay attention this time, but it only kind of worked. Mrs. Nora did end up talking to Ellie during one of the breaks, but she didn’t seem upset when she came back and even gave me a thumbs up.

School finally ended, and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Having to sit in one spot all day was really not that easy. Ellie got caught in the rush of other people so I waited for her out in the hall.

“Ready to go?” Ellie asked as she shoved her helmet onto her head.

“Yeah,” I said, putting mine on. “Ben’s getting his cast off today, right?”

“Yep so we won’t see him today, just Danny and Tyler,” she said with a nod.

We took off from school skating straight to the park. There wasn’t even anyone else yet.

“I didn’t get to practice on anything but flat ground all summer so don’t laugh at me if I fall,” I told Ellie.

“I’m not making that promise,” she said with a smile.

“Boo,” I said, giving her a thumbs down.

She stuck her tongue out at me.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Danny called from the entrance to the park. He skated through the entrance with Tyler hot on his heels.

“Hey,” Ellie called back.

“Hey, Percy,” Tyler said. “You gonna show us those powerslides you claim you can do.”

“I can do them,” I said.

“Yeah, come on then, Percy,” Danny said. “Show us.”

I rolled my eyes, turning my board towards a flat stretch of the park. I got up my speed then executed a perfect powerslide. I turned back to the guys and held out my arms.

“Oh shit, you can powerslide,” Tyler said.

“I wasn’t lying about it,” I retorted.

“Man, mine’s complete shit in comparison, like look at this,” Danny said, making his own attempt.

I quickly got out of his way as he ended up running off his board.

“Wait, Percy, can you do it again?” Ellie asked.

“Sure,” I said then pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon teaching everyone how to powerslide.

Ellie ended up doing the best. Danny refused to lean back far enough, and Tyler wouldn’t fully commit to them.

“Alright, I gotta head home,” I said, checking my watch. “Getting too close to dinner time.”

“Yeah, we should get going, too,” Danny said.

“See ya,” Ellie said.

“Ben should be back tomorrow,” Tyler said.

“Shouldn’t he not be on a board yet?” I asked. He didn’t have magic healing powers like I did.

Tyler shrugged.

Okay, well, I’d find out the next day regardless. “See ya.”

I skated to the subway then back to the apartment. I got in just before Mom did which meant vegetable chopping duty.

“How was school?” she asked.

“First day’s kinda bad just with how Meriwhether works,” I said. “We gotta sit and be talked to all day, and we don’t even get to go to music class or anything, just lunch. Definitely the worst day of the year.”

“But you made it through,” she said, shooting me a smile. “How’s your new teacher?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I said. “She seems kinda stern, but she checked if there was anything I did for ADHD in class.”

“And did you tell her?”

I shrugged. “I told her I was okay with how class normally was. Which is true. It’s easier when you can pick what you want to get done.”

“Alright,” she said. “You made good progress last year. I want to make sure it keeps going.”

“Yeah,” I said. Really just getting through all the reading at the end had been the only really hard part since even the state tests hadn’t been that bad in the proper classroom and everything. “Oh, did I tell you? Ellie’s in my class this year.”

“Oh,” she said.

“What?” I asked. “You don’t seem that happy about it.”

“I’m just, uh, a little worried,” she said.

“About Ellie?” I asked, crossing my arms. “You said you wouldn’t mess with any of my friends.”

“I said I wouldn’t stop you from hanging out with them,” Mom said, holding up a finger. “I’m allowed to be a little concerned that you might not pay enough attention to your schoolwork with Ellie around when that was a problem last year in music class. You remember that whole thing with Claire?”

“That wasn’t Ellie’s fault,” I insisted hotly.

“I’m not blaming her, but you two together,” she said, moving her hand back and forth, “messed around a lot and made her feel excluded.”

“Me and Claire practiced together way more than just me and Ellie did. We both play guitar,” I argued.

“I just want you to pay attention to your schoolwork,” she said. “I know you don’t get grades, but you still need to learn and get your work done. I don’t want to have to check up on you in school when I’ve got my own classes now.”

I crossed my arms and leaned back against the counter.

She looked at for me for a moment, turned away, let out a breath and turned back. “Alright, please don’t sulk and just…tell me what you’re thinking. I can take it.”

“You sure picked a time to care about my schooling,” I said, staring over at the shitty back splash rather than looking at her face.

“I have always cared about your schooling. I found you all those schools, good schools with scholarships you qualified for, but they never were what they said they were. I couldn’t just…” she shrugged a little helplessly. “Make them listen to me. I’d swear up and down you were a good kid, that something else must have happened, but it never mattered.”

I scowled. No, I hadn’t ever driven a cannon into a bus, but I really hadn’t been that good a kid. Getting into fights, barely able to read, cheating on assignments, selling candy out of dorms, all of it until Meriwhether. It was definitely the best spot with all the time I needed and no grades, but I’d have still taken a normal, old public school over any of the rest.

“I didn’t want to stay at any of those places anyways,” I muttered as I left the kitchen.

I holed up in my bedroom, flipping through my CD collection, but unable to pick one to listen to. I came out when Mom called for me, slumping down in my chair at the dining table after finishing my libation to my father.

Mom sighed. “I am sorry for my reaction. I think Ellie is a good friend. I just want you to also pay attention to your schoolwork and not get distracted.”

I shoved food around on my plate. “I don’t get why you’re so worried about it. We still got stuff done in music class, and I had to help Tyson a lot last year since he’d never even been to school before. You weren’t mad about that.”

Mom’s face got a bit of a pinched look then. “You were being responsible when it came to Tyson. Teaching someone else means you know the material better.”

I had no idea if that was true or not, but it sounded like bullshit to me. “Whatever.”

I would have gone without the food except I’d been hungry the whole time I’d been in my room. I cleared the whole plate instead then went to go put on The White Stripes.