Nyctophilia

CH- 7||MY DINNER GOES UP IN SMOKE|| (part 2)

Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the
woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."
"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"
"Practice fights. Practical jokes."
"Practical jokes?" Celeste asked looking horrified at the prospect
"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out.
From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a
strawberry farm."
"So...you're a year-rounder?" Celeste asked.
Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.
"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last
day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been
here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."
"Why did you come so young?"
She twisted the ring on her necklace. "its none of your business Percy stop it." hisses Celeste,
"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So...I could
just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"
"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission.
But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session
unless..."
"Unless?"
"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time..."
Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't
gone well.
" That's all right and all, but I still have to go to my school" Celeste interrupts the silence, who was about to ask about the last time.

"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"
"Ambrosia."
"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."
Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"
"Well...no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"
She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know,
but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty
major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."
"You've been to Olympus?" Celeste her eyes lighting up with curiosity,
"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—
We took a field trip during the winter solstice. That's when the gods have their
big annual council."
"But...how did you get there?"
"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at us like she was sure we must know this already. "You two are New Yorkers, right?"

"The empire State building has only a hundred and two floor though" said Padma patil (is it patil or Patel?)

"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in
the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out. Celeste besides me just glanced at me and shrugged.

"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as
if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping...I mean—Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, i mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."
I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.
"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too
young. If they would just tell me the problem..."
I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan. Celeste meanwhile stayed to ask Annabeth something.

~Celeste pov~[short]
Percy left me and Annabeth alone, walking towards the cabin.
"You aren't following him?" Annabeth asks,
"No, i needed to ask you something"
"Yes?"
"So you see, um, i kinda go to a school, honestly  I think it may fall under hecate's domain but anyways I'll have to leave until I'm 17, like I have to go every year till I'm 17, how do I go there then? If there are monsters trying to attack me everywhere i mean" she asks quickly
"You go to Ilvermorny?" Annabeth asks me,
"Oh no, I go to Hogwarts, the one in Europe" Celeste corrects
" I see you could ask Chiron, when you need to leave, he'll most probably let you"
"Alright thanks, see you later, i hope" Celeste says with a smile
"Yea see you later than" annabeth says, having a thinking look her face. (Idk what to call it)

"YOU BROKE THE INTERNATIONAL STATUTE OF SECRECY, THATS ILLEGAL" Shouted Hermione whole Celeste sighed
"While you do have a point, annabeth already knew of the magical world existing, it's a creation hecate, she already knew Ilvermorny existing, so no, I did not break the international statute of secrecy, also stop shouting" Celeste explains while glaring at the girl

[BACK TO PERCY POV]
After a while Celeste caught up to me, we walked back to the cabin in silence, still digesting the information.
Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for
dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar
features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the
kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody
paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and
plopped down with my minotaur horn. Celeste told me she would be back after some time, and took off wandering in the cabin.
The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance,
too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.
"Found you and your sister a sleeping bag each" he said. "And here, I stole you two some toiletries from the camp store."
I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.
I said, "Thanks." while celeste just said "thank you" nodding at him

Celeste smiles  sadly,

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Look whose back from the dead, yep surprise surprise, I'm not dead, but like damn, I shifted recently and liek ym schools gonna start pretty soon, kinda nervous cuz I've been in the same school all my life before so yea,

How y'all doing?