Chapter Text
Demeter started reading. A part of her was curious to understand why the girl respected so much her brother.
Hades wasn't one of her favourite relatives. He kidnapped her precious daughter. He didn't deserve any respect.
"We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the Minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, ‘That’s her.’"
"How to make an entrance." Dakota commented.
Percy nodded. "That's me. And I definitely knows how to make a nice one."
Thalia rolled her eyes. "You know how to make a dramatic one. That's not the same thing."
"Dramatic, nice. Same thing to me." Percy retorted, winking at her cousin.
"Most of the campers were older than me."
"And also taller." Clarisse laughed.
"They trained more than me, since I hadn't started yet." Percy shrugged. "And, to be honest, I was just arrived and I still kicked your ass, La Rue."
Thalia snickered.
Maybe those readings were helping Percy. Clearly she didn't get over most of the things that happened to her. This allowed her to receive the needed apologies.
"Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover.... I felt like they were expecting me to do a cartwheel or something."
"Can you do one?" Leo asked, his eyes shining.
Percy shrugged. "Kinda. Wanna see?"
"YES!" Most of the Campers exclaimed, but Hera talked. "At the first break. Not during the reading."
Then, she raised her eyebrow when she realized that the demigods looked at Percy to get the confirming nod before looking at her sister to listen.
Who the hell was that girl?
"I looked back at the farmhouse. .... and I got the distinct impression I was being watched."
"It moved!" Apollo cheered. "My Oracle did move when she saw you!"
Percy grimaced. "How lucky am I?"
She did quite remembered when the Oracle took a walk and everyone basically left the job to take her back to the attic to her and Grover. And that wasn't nice at all. Mr D could have just waved and teletrasported her to the attic once again.
"‘What’s up there?’ I asked Chiron..... But I was also sure something had moved that curtain."
Chiron jumped. Percy was quite observant and he never really saw this. Her humour made her seem quite childish sometimes, and Chiron frequently underestimated her.
He would never make the same mistake ever again.
"‘Come along, Percy,’ ....It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead."
Percy looked at Zeus, who sighed. "I already told that his restriction on his own domain were lifted."
Hera smiled. "I like your daughter, Poseidon. Maybe she should come to our Councils."
"That's a brilliant idea!" Hades nodded. "It would be good seeing someone put Zeus on his place."
Percy grimaced. She really hoped that her first interaction with a god would just changed their minds.
Sally hugged her. She had her doubts, mostly scared of what would have happened if she let her stay at New York. But now, seeing the young woman she was becoming, Sally was grateful that Poseidon persuaded her in not sending Percy to the Camp that early.
"I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, being lectured by Mr D.
‘Grover won’t get in too much trouble, will he?’ I asked Chiron. ‘I mean... he was a good protector. Really.’I was still mad at him. That didn't mean I wanted him to get in trouble. He was still my friend, and, seeing the danger I was and my mom's fate, I felt grateful that he put my life over our friendship. That was a sacrifice for my well being. Not everyone would be able to do that."
Grover gulped. Not everyone would see and understand that part of this job.
But Percy did. She always saw everything and understood everyone. She was special.
Hermes smiled at the girl. She was kind and compassionate. Pan would have loved her.
Maybe it was the reason why she was able to use part of his magic.
"Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horse’s back like a saddle. ‘Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill.’
‘But he did that!’"
"He was knocked out." Piper pointed out.
"Because a lightining hit us!" Percy protested. "Otherwise, he would have make it!"
"Like I said, I agreed with you." Chiron sighed. "And Mr D gave him his chance, you know this too."
"No, Percy was the one that gave me my chance. She had no reason to choose me, but she did the same." Grover said. "Mr D only stated that I had to complete a quest with a demigod. And, furthermore, he couldn't force Percy into choosing me."
Percy smiled. "Like I said, I made the right choice. You were the only one I knew I could have trusted."
Chris smiled slighly. He knew Percy trusted also Luke. She would have chosen him, if she wouldn't know his hate towards the gods. She wanted to respect his personal opinion and for that she didn't ask him to go with her.
"‘I might agree with you,’ .... Chiron looked away quickly. ‘Let’s move along, shall we?’"
"Really?" Thalia narrowed her eyes. "Will someone answer to you?"
"Yes." Percy nodded. "Only him."
Thalia sighed. That was so unfair.
"But I wasn’t quite ready to let the subject drop. ..... ‘Come, Percy. Let’s see the woods.’"
"No straight answer again." Thalia muttered.
Nico nodded. "I am so glad that Percy covered it for me."
"Why do you think she take the work?" Clarisse asked. "To make sure that no one would get her same experience."
Percy smiled. Clarisse was one of the few that really got her. Probably, she mused, it was because Clarisse was like her. A warrior and a survivor.
"As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. .... ‘I don’t suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I’ll visit the armoury later.’"
Thalia looked at the centaur, but said nothing more. She already made her point.
Piper was shocked. When they showed her the Camp, no one was like that.
It was really thank to Percy that Piper didn't have to endure the same experience? Piper should thanked the other girl? What other things changed just because of Percy Jackson?
"I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armoury, .... ‘Sword and spear fights?’ I asked."
No one said anything but they all feel bad for Percy. She deserved better.
"‘Cabin challenges and all that,’ he explained. ‘Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there’s the mess hall.’"
"Usually?" Apollo asked.
"Sometimes accidents happen." Chiron murmured.
Sally gasped. The only safe place for her daughter wasn't even safe at all? Could an accident have taken her away like that?
"Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.
‘What do you do when it rains?’ I asked."
Frank nodded. "What do you do?"
Percy gave him a smile as she said. "The Camp's protections also cover the weather. It doesn't rain unless it's wanted."
Frank smiled. "Thank you."
He wasn't used to people answering his questions without a frown. But Percy wasn't bothered by his question.
"Chiron looked at me as if I’d gone a little weird. ‘We still have to eat, don’t we?’ I decided to drop the subject."
"Percy's answer was better." Hazel muttered.
Travis looked at her. "How old are you?"
Hazel raised an eyebrow, but she said. "Thirteen. Why?"
"And your father is Pluto, right?" Connor asked.
"And?" Hazel replied.
"No, okay. It's just..." They looked over Percy. "You met her and you haven't adopted her yet?"
"Hey!" Percy protested. "I don't adopt people like that!"
Thalia coughed. "You adopted Nico the exact moment you saw him."
"Because he is adorable and I love him!" Percy answered. "Have you seen him? With his glowing eyes and wide smile? How could I not loved him?"
Nico smiled, his eyes glowing and a wide smile on his face.
"Yeah," Thalia nodded. "By the way, Travis, Percy already adopted Hazel. Hazel hasn't been warned yet."
Hazel blushed, but Percy muttered. "I wasn't plan to adopt her yet. I first wanted to see if in the future..."
"Oh." Connor nodded. "You wanted to see if in the future you will adopt her."
"That's explain everything." Chris nodded.
Percy rolled her eyes. "Can we just go back to the reading?"
"Of course." The three Hermes' sons smiled.
Hazel looked at Percy. "Have you already adopted me?"
"Yes." Percy nodded. "Mom will soon be tired with me bringing home demigods."
"You only take Tyson, Nico, Drew and Jake, by now." Sally sighed. "I am used to see children enter our home. Usually, you return them to their parents."
"No, they made them, and I will keep them." Percy shook her head. "That's the Camp's motto."
"She's right." Charles nodded. "She is the mom's Camp for a reason."
"Her cookies and her personality." Thalia nodded. "Mostly the cookies."
"Finally, he showed me the cabins. ... Number nine had smokestacks like a tiny factory."
Hephaestus smiled, like Leo and Charles did.
"Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass."
Demeter smiled.
"Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at."
Apollo beamed at the description of his cabin, while Will and Michael smiled at Percy.
"They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field,.... A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick."
Hestia looked up, her eyes warming. "You saw me." She stated.
Only the ones with the purest heart would be able to see her. And Percy did saw her.
"I did." Percy bowed her head. "I am sorry that I didn't stop talking with you, Lady Aunt."
"Seeing me is already enough." Hestia reassured the girl. "Seeing the family is enough."
Percy's smile became sad. "Not always." She said, thinking about Luke.
"The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve."
Zeus stood proudly, but Hades snorted. "Just like his ego."
Most of the gods snickered. Hera, Poseidon and Demeter were the ones that laughed without trying to hide their amusem*nt.
"Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a holograph, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them."
Thalia inclined her head. "You made a great job describing it."
Anthony nodded. "Percy can be very observant."
"And I can also be a liar, right?"
"You're not a liar!" Anthony told her. "Percy, I didn't know you. Okay? I didn't know how you were like."
"My mom just died and you thought that my main interest would have been glory?" Percy replied. "I don't care if you didn't know me! You should have known that losing a mother is the worst thing someone could feel!"
"I didn't lose a mother. And I run away from my father." Anthony said. "You know that I trust you now."
"Sure." Percy answered, her voice cold as ice. "Thank you so much for this."
"Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peaco*cks."
Hera smiled.
"‘Zeus and Hera?’ I guessed.
‘Correct,’ Chiron said.
‘Their cabins look empty.’"
"As they should be." Hera said. "I won't go around and sleep with mortals. And Zeus is married."
"Cause being married is such a good reason for a god to be faithful, right?" Percy rolled her eyes. "I mean, if you wanted a faithful husband, maybe Hermes and Apollo would be the ones you should have proposed."
Anthony blinked. "What?"
"What, what?" Percy asked.
Thalia laughed. "When you decided who would be a good husband between the gods?"
"I read the myths. When they had a lover, they had that lover. And that's it." Percy shrugged. "Maybe Ares can be a good husband, but he is technically married with Aphrodite, so..."
Aphrodite smiled. "I am very willing to share him with you."
"I am a minor." Percy said. "Mom would kill me if I had a relationship with a god."
"No, honey." Sally smiled. "I'd kill the god, not you."
Poseidon gritted his teeth. If a god ever tried to take his daughter, he would have to marry her and be always faithful. Or Poseidon would destroy him.
"‘Several of the cabins are. That’s true. No one ever stays in one or two.’
Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians."
"A mascot?" Poseidon repeated.
"Yes. That was the most appropriate comparison I was able to make."
"Okay." Poseidon sighed. "I suppose you were still new to this world, so..."
"No, it is still the best comparison I can think of." Percy shook her head.
"Okay. We just become mascots." Poseidon sighed.
"But why would some be empty?
I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three."
Poseidon smiled. That was the sea that called Percy.
"It wasn’t high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough grey stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor."
Reyna grimaced. That cabin was better than the temple for Neptune they had at their Camp. She should have mentioned something to Percy, before it appeared in the books and angered the sea god towards the Roman Camp. Reyna had seen how Percy had been able to reassure her father and calm him down.
"I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that!’"
Poseidon raised an eyebrow towards Chiron. "I would never harm a child that was just curious to see my cabin, Chiron. Why you should stop her from looking at it?"
Nico nodded. At the Camp, he slept in cabin three with Percy. And Poseidon never tried to kill him because of that.
Chiron sighed. "Those were hard times, Lord Poseidon. I just wanted to keep Percy safe."
Poseidon grimaced. He didn't like that explanation.
If Chiron thought that Percy was in danger, he should have taken her straight to the Camp, to protect her.
He agreed with Percy. The satyr didn't fail. It was Chiron's fault.
"Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. ... A stuffed wild boar’s head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me."
Ares smiled. Clarisse laughed. "Yes, it is something it does."
"Oh my god, I thought it was just me!" Leo exclaimed. "I thought I was going crazy!"
"No, it does, right?" Percy looked at Leo, her eyes focused on the other demigod. "It freaks me out every single time!"
"I began to take the opposite director just to avoid its eyes!" Leo replied.
"Oh my gods, I totally get that!" Percy nodded.
"It is absolutely the worst thing they could have put there." Leo shook his head. "How are we supposed to have stuffed animals after that thing?"
"Right?!?" Percy nodded.
Thalia sighed. "Are you guys done?"
Leo and Percy blushed.
"Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen."
Clarisse smiled when Chris kissed her cheek.
"She wore a size XXXLCamp Half-Blood T-shirt under a camouflage jacket.... and brown instead of red."
Percy looked at Clarisse. "I take that back. You are better than that one."
"I better be." Clarisse muttered. Except that she wasn't. She bullied Percy, called her a liar and she wasn't a good demigoddess. Percy was new, young. Clarisse should have protect her, as an older female demigoddess.
She failed her.
"I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron’s hooves. ‘We haven’t seen any other centaurs,’ I observed.
‘No,’ said Chiron sadly. ‘My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I’m afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won’t see any here.’"
"The Party Ponies are amazing." Percy smiled.
Anthony nodded. "They really are."
Grover nodded.
They all remembered how they saved their life just a year later this quest.
"‘You said your name was Chiron. Are you really...’"
"Grover said that." Connor said.
"Yeah, when he was selling the new product, Chiron deluxe." Travis nodded.
The demigods all laughed. Even the Roman ones were laughing.
Chiron sighed.
"He smiled down at me. ‘The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am.’
‘But, shouldn’t you be dead?’"
"Oh my god, Percy!" Thalia shook her head. "You can't just go and ask people if they should be dead!"
"I am sorry!" Percy answered. "I was just curious, that's it."
"Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. ... I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years."
Leo muttered. "Not in my Top Ten Things to Wish For list."
"It wouldn’t have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list."
Percy and Leo smiled at each other.
Travis muttered. "Great, Percy just adopted Hazel and Leo."
Connor shrugged. "I am pretty sure she adopted also Frank and Jason."
"Oh, yes." Travis nodded. "I mean, she kinda tried to adopt Hephaestus, so..."
"What?" Poseidon asked.
"I didn't adopt him!" Percy shook her head. "I was baking, he came for ask me to do a quest, and I offered him some cookies! If that is adopting, then I adopted also Hermes, Apollo, Aphrodite and Persephone. And I didn't." She added once she noticed her father's eyes.
"Good." Poseidon nodded. "I will talk with them about appearing at your house."
"'Kay." Percy shrugged. "But they were just asking for quests. So... you know... they just got some cookies and cakes in the meantime."
Apollo, Hermes, Persephone and Aphrodite smiled at Percy.
"‘Doesn’t it ever get boring?’... ‘Oh, look,’ he said. ‘Anthony is waiting for us.’"
Thalia shrugged. "I think that the reason is that we die a lot and very young."
Percy gulped. "Yeah. I kinda get it."
"The blonde boy I’d met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.
When we reached him, he looked me over critically, like he was still thinking about how much I drooled."
Some giggles.
"I tried to see what he was reading, but I couldn’t make out the title. ... ‘Make yourself at home.’"
"Thank you so much." Percy rolled her eyes. "Maybe next time, wait till you see if I managed to enter the cabin."
Chiron looked at Anthony. "I thought you'd make her enter right away."
"I wanted to make her do a tour before leaving her in the cabin." Anthony blushed.
"Probably he wanted to check if I was a liar." Percy replied.
"I was about to enter the cabin, but Anthony shook his head. 'Come on, I'll give you a tour.'
'Sure, except, Chiron kinda already made me one, so...'"
Thalia laughed. "I love your sassiness."
"He grabbed my wrist and dragged me away."
Artemis looked at Anthony. "You will never touch a girl like that ever again."
"The problem isn't that I am a girl and he isn't. If I was the boy and Anthony the girl, what? He could just grab me and drag me where he wanted?" Percy asked.
Artemis muttered. "Of course not. That would be wrong the same."
"But he will be better learn to respect you." Apollo said. "He had no rights to treat you like that."
Percy smiled at Apollo. "Thank you, lord Apollo."
"Just Apollo is fine."
"Okay, Just Apollo." Percy said, making the gods and demigods laugh, while Apollo rolled his eyes.
" When we were a few metres away, Anthony said, ‘I just wanted to make sure you knew. Jackson, don't make a fool of yourself..’"
Chris snorted. Luke was the one that protected Percy the most and he was working against the gods.
Really, Anthony would never be Percy's best friend if Luke was still there.
"‘What?’
He rolled his eyes and mumbled under his breath, ‘I can’t believe I thought you were the one.’"
Thalia raised an eyebrow. "What the hell? Anthony this is not the way you welcome a new kid at the Camp!"
"I know! I am so sorry." Anthony muttered. "I am so so sorry. Percy. Please, believe this at least."
"Of course." Percy rolled her eyes. "Cause you aren't a liar."
"‘What’s your problem?’ I was getting angry now. ‘All I know is, I kill some bull guy –’
‘Don’t talk like that!’ Anthony told me. ‘You know how many kids at this camp wish they’d had your chance?’"
"You didn't believe me!" Percy shouted. "How dare you say something like this? What chance? To lose their only parent? The only person that always cared for them and was by their side? That chance?"
"I didn't know the full story." Anthony muttered. "Percy. I couldn't have known all of it."
"You saw me!" Percy said. "You are the one that saw me. Of course you knew everything!"
"Maybe he was just jealous that a girl managed to do something he couldn't do." Gwen proposed. "I know it's something common in our Camp."
"Probably." Percy muttered.
"‘To get killed?’
‘To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?’"
"To survive?" Charles said.
"Yes, I mean, that's glorious. Killing the Minotaur is a big feat, but... we don't try to fight monsters on purpose." Will said. "We train so that, if we ever ran into a monster, we would be able to survive him."
"I shook my head. ‘Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories...’.... ‘Monsters don’t die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don’t die.’"
"Very clear." Hermes laughed.
"‘Oh, thanks. That clears it up.’"
Hermes and Percy smiled.
"‘They don’t have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you’re lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re form.’.... ‘You talk in your sleep.’"
"Maybe we will need to talk about privacy." Sally said, looking at Anthony with narrowed eyes.
Percy never told her how Anthony was with her. She should have. Sally would have talked with the boy.
Will chimed in. "Drew noticed that she talked in her sleep and Mr D put some protection on her bed when she is in the infirmary to recover without having other demigods mind her business."
Poseidon and Sally nodded towards Dionysus, while Paul said. "Thank you, Lord Dionysus."
"‘You almost called her something. A Fury? They’re Hades’ torturers, right?’... ‘My mom is Sally Jackson,’ I said. ‘She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to.’"
"I think he meant the immortal and godly one." Piper laughed.
Percy nodded. "Yes, I thought the same thing."
Sally smiled, leaning to kiss Percy's cheek.
Poseidon simply sighed.
"‘I’m sorry about your mom, Percy. But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about your other parent. Your dad.’
‘I never knew him. He could be dead.’"
"No, he can't." Thalia told Percy, seriously.
"Good to know. Thank you for the news." Percy nodded at her cousin, same serious expression.
"Anthony sighed. Clearly, he’d had this conversation before with other kids. ‘Your father’s not dead, Percy.’
‘How can you say that? You know him?’
‘No, of course not.’"
"Technically, you did." Thalia shrugged.
Anthony rolled his eyes.
"‘Then how can you say –’
‘Because I know you. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of us.’"
"But she isn't one of us." Travis shook his head.
"She is the one." Connor added.
Chris muttered. "You'd think that you'd known the difference, Anthony."
"‘You don’t know anything about me.’......' [..] They don’t want you seeing them for what they are.’"
"That wasn't nice." Piper said. "Yes, you knew this stuffs about Percy, but saying them like that... it wasn't nice at all."
Anthony blushed.
Thalia looked at Percy. She seemed okay, so she didn't say anything. But she'll talk with Anthony during the first break, before the movie night.
"‘You sound like... you went through the same thing?’.... ..... ‘Errete es korakas,’ Anthony said, which I somehow understood was Greek for “Go to the crows”, though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. ‘You don’t stand a chance.’"
"It's like, go to Hell." Thalia laughed.
"Maybe we should wash his mouth with soap." Percy muttered, a little too amused to Anthony's opinion.
He knew he messed up, but...
"‘We’ll pulverize you,’ ... ‘It explains the bad smell.’"
"Great!" Thalia sighed. "Percy, could you not?"
"What?" Percy asked.
"Just, no." Thalia sighed again.
Nico looked at her. "You are sighing a lot of time."
"Maybe we should start counting them!" Percy smiled.
Thalia sighed again.
"Three!" Nico and Percy exclaimed.
"Clarisse growled. ‘We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.’... I had to earn my own rep."
"Your rep wasn't that good." Clarisse told her.
"I am the new kid that kicked the Ares cabin's asses." Percy shrugged. "I think my rep was amazing."
"Your ego is showing." Thalia said.
"I handed Anthony my Minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me towards a cinder-block buil.... Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head towards the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water thinking, I will not go into that. I won’t.
'Just admit you made it up, Prissy.' She whispered to my ear. 'You made it up to being able to defeat the Minotaur. Admit it and I'll let you go.'"
Everyone looked at Clarisse.
"What the hell?" Jason said. "Did anyone believed Percy?"
"Yes. Luke did." Percy sighed. "I don't know if Chris...?"
Chris nodded. "I believed you. You didn't seem the type that made up those kind of stories."
"Thank you." Percy smiled.
"Okay, but..." Leo looked at Percy. "That isn't a good behaviour. You were a new demigoddess. She should have helped you! Not herassed you!"
"We talked about this. And I forgave her." Percy shrugged. "It's between me and Clarisse and we sorted everything out. End of discussion."
Everyone nodded.
Clarisse then said. "I know I messed up. Percy deserved better. I said it before, and I am going to say it again. I am sorry. I should have behaved differently."
"She changed her way to welcome the new kids after the second summer." Silena said. "She said that she was wrong about Percy and, after what Percy did for her, she deserved some help."
Percy smiled towards Clarisse. "That is something I didn't know and that I will use against you in the future."
"Really?"
"Absolutely."
"I felt angry. My mom gave her life so that I could be safe from the Minotaur, and this girl was asking me to split over her memory, braveness and love?"
Sally kissed her daughter forehead. She was the best daughter Sally could have asked for.
"Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the
pipes shudder. Clarisse’s gri.... I didn’t have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing."
"Guess who is her father!" Leo shouted. "Three guesses, the first two don't count."
Percy laughed.
Thalia raised her eyebrow. "Really? You didn't know after that? The only one more obviously thing that could have happened if that she got a neon warning on her head!"
"That's kinda what happens, so.." Percy shrugged. "They really didn't want to have a forbidden kid at the Camp."
"Why?" Leo asked.
"Apparently, we are too powerful and we cause problems." Percy shrugged. "Nonsense. I cause problems, and not because I am powerful."
Leo began to laugh.
Thalia sighed.
"Four!" Bianca smiled.
"Bianca!" Thalia scolded her, but she shrugged. "Percy makes Nico do funny things. I want to change my adoptive parent."
"I can adopt you as well, Bianca." Percy smiled. "Don't worry. We can share your custody."
Leo pouted. "Can I be adopted as well?"
"You already are." Percy shrugged. "You talked the first time and I adopted you. Yes, this is how it works."
"Yeah!" Leo smiled.
" I stood up, my legs shaky....‘You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth.’"
"Yes, you should have let it go." Thalia muttered. "But you never actually do it."
"Why should I?" Percy smiled. "This way is more fun!"
"Her friends had to hold her back. .... ‘I’m thinking,’ he said, ‘that I want you on my team for capture the flag.’"
Demeter finished the chapter. Persephone smiled. "I'd like to read, if it's okay for you."
Percy smiled. "Of course, Persephone!"
Then, she looked over the Romans. "I won't be mad if you comment, you know?" She smiled. "I might adopt you, but this is a different thing."
Gwen laughed. "Thank you."
"I think she adopted you." Silena said.
"There are worst thing that being adopted by Percy." Drew smiled. "She adopted me the first time she saw me."
"Yeah, you were so cute and adorable." Percy smiled.
"Uh, didn't she broke someone's head?" Travis asked.
"I said cute and adorable, not harmless." Percy rolled her eyes.
Drew smiled, and Persephone started reading.
