[PERCY]
The game of Coach Hedge versus Kristy Bummerman started.
"You can do this, Krist!" Billy shouted to his friend.
"Seriously, Bill? Kristy is short for Kristina, and you had to shorten it even more!" Kristy complained.
"It's shorter," Billy protested.
"Oh yeah, you couldn't let one extra 'Y' sound out of your mouth."
"Stop arguing, we're starting the game!" Jason, as usual, was in command.
Piper laughed and whispered something in his ear, which I guessed was something like, Shouting at them as if a couple of mortals were an army of monsters, huh?
Coach Hedge asked the question first.
"Who is the greatest, the mightiest, the super mightiest, super, super mightiest-"
After the twentieth or so 'super', Leo stopped him.
"Okay, Coach. Enough 'supers', and let's hear who that super person is, yeah? No point in saying all that supers if you don't get to the person."
"Most super mightiest satyr in the world?" Coach Hedge finished his question.
"Uh..." Kristy said.
"The question has no answer," Annabeth said. "Coach, you can't ask questions which don't have answers."
"There was no rule like that!" Coach protested.
"Well, because all the quiz games have rules like that, and we said it was a quiz game."
"Only this one, then, cupcake. And then I'll ask some questions that this girl might know."
Annabeth hesitated. Then she said,
"Last one, Coach."
It was a miracle.
"Uh..." Kristy said. "You?"
All our eyes widened. How could Kristy know? Did she also know that we were demigods, too?
"You're right!" Coach Hedge leaped around.
"It is? Well, since Annabeth said it didn't have an answer, I just said anything... but I got it right!"
Phew, she didn't know we were demigods.
"That was amazing!" I told her.
She smiled at me and looked me in the eyes. I managed to figure out her eyes were green. Time to find out if they were the next time I saw them. She didn't let go of the eye contact until Becky shook her.
"You okay, Kristy?" she asked.
"What? Oh, yeah. Uh..." she looked away, and she coughed, starting her question.
"Name Medusa's sisters." she said.
"I remember one," Coach Hedge said. "Euryale, since it reminds me of Europe and its Eiffel Tower. Me and Mellie visited with the baby - I - I mean, Mellie and her baby sister."
"Um..." Kristy frowned. "Okay... the other one?"
"I know it's got 'th', but I forgot. Thanos?"
"We're talking about the Avengers?" Kristy laughed. "No, it's Sthenno."
"You're so good, girl!" Annabeth cheered, and Kristy smiled.
The game went on, and the game ended with a 5 : 3, with Kristy winning.
"My plan worked!" Annabeth exclaimed. "See? I told you you'll do an amazing job!"
"Yeah..." Kristy muttered, blushing.
"Frank!" the other team announced.
"Ooh," I said. "We're going to win this, Wise Girl."
"It's Annabeth!" Nico called out, and Frank groaned as if Gaea had started waking again.
Before Annabeth went to play, she muttered to me,
"I think it's a good thing we have one member less. We can use our ace two times."
"Didn't think of that." I replied, kissing her cheek.
Annabeth did an amazing job, but so did Frank. But Frank had a hard time remembering myths, and when Annabeth told him the answer, he smashed the floor, saying, "I knew this one!" I warned him not to break the house before it's even been a week since we moved in.
Annabeth, on the other hand, proved she was a daughter of Athena. Most of the myths she had ever heard of (which was a lot, probably second from the whole group after Jason) was unforgettable for her. So obviously, she won. I couldn't keep track of the points because of my sucking math skills, and nobody told me, so I just knew that Annabeth won.
"We're winning, guys!" Michael exclaimed happily.
"Yup, we're winning." Reyna agreed.
"Any plans?" Nico asked.
"We see who they call." Annabeth answered.
They took quite a long time discussing. Finally, they decided to go for Grover.
"Grover..." Annabeth muttered. "Do you know a lot about Greek mythology, Michael?"
"Nope." he replied firmly.
"Okay, then, Nico, who do you think would be better at the game, Rachel or Grover?"
"Ooh..." Nico said. "Hard question. I guess Rachel would be more sensible."
"Then we should go for Michael right now. I trust he can beat Grover." Annabeth decided.
"I don't." Michael muttered, gulping. "Don't blame me if I lose."
"It's okay." Annabeth said. "You can trust us with not blaming people for their mistakes." I noticed the puzzled faces on Michael and Kristy's face. Billy was busily gobbling up his food.
"She should have been the leader." Nico grunted, looking at Annabeth.
"Oh, sorry. You want to instruct?" she asked him.
"I'm complaining because I don't want to be the leader." Nico said.
"Oh. Sorry again then, because, unfortunately, I am not willing to change the leader of our team."
"Oh, man."
"What do I do?" Michael asked desperately. "I think I'm going to lose this thing. The best thing I know is that there are twelve Olympians, and they are what - what are the Olympians?"
"Uh, gods?" That was supposed to be a joke. Apparently, it was the answer to Michael's question.
"Oh, right. Gods. I thought they were goblins or something."
"Goblins?"
"Yeah, they come up in my little sister's books - it's about fairies and two humans defeating goblins and his master - Jack Frost - but anyways, what do I do?"
"Oo... kay. Um... stay calm. Think. If you have no idea, look at me for help. Or Annabeth's okay, too. Then I'll try to give a hint without anyone noticing."
"Right."
"Good luck, man. And remember - we won't blame you if we lose."
Before the game started, I walked over to Grover.
"Hey, man." I said.
"Hey, dude." he replied. I could see in his eyes that he was a hundred percent sure he would win, and if he didn't, he'd literally kick his own butt.
"You could go a little easy on Michael, yeah?"
"Uh..." Grover glanced at the mortal boy. "Why?"
"Because you're an amazing friend and you'll do anything for me."
"And I'll do anything for my team."
"I thought you owed me something!" I laughed. "I saved you from the Minotaur before I even knew I was a demigod, got you your job, saved you from that stupid island, saved you from dying in two wars-"
"You made me fight in war." Grover reminded me.
"Sure, but if I hadn't given that dagger to Luke, the whole world - including you - would have died."
"Handing a dagger to someone isn't that hard."
"Oh, is it not? He betrayed me when I was so young and dumb and didn't know much about living as a demigod! And he broke Annabeth's heart!"
"Which gave Annabeth to you."
"If Annabeth doesn't love me and loves Luke, and - I don't know - if I was the only person who could save Luke or something - which is nothing weird considering what I've been through - then I'd risk my own life to save Luke. And I'd be happy for Annabeth if they got together!"
"Hey, Percy?" Jason carefully walked over to us. "We gotta start the game."
"Yeah... yeah, sure." I got out of the way. And then I asked Jason a question. "You didn't hear what we were saying, right?"
"No, wasn't that loud," he told me.
"Thank goodness." I sighed.
"Though I did hear the name 'Luke'." When Jason said that, I decided not to respond. Instead, I glanced at Annabeth, who was talking to Kristy, not aware of the fact that 'Luke' had been a conversation topic just thirty seconds ago. I sighed in relief.
The game started. Grover asked the question first.
"I'll try to go easy on you," Grover said. I couldn't tell if he was doing it for me or not. "Name one god and one goddess who gave special items to Perseus while he was on his trip to slay Medusa."
"Um..." It was obvious Michael didn't have an answer. His face turned red. It got redder and redder, until he was a tomato. Then he seemed to remember what I said. He turned to me.
I thought about it. If he was Annabeth's friend, he would obviously know she was very smart. And he should know that Athena was the goddess of wisdom. If not, he would at least know Athena and Annabeth both started with an 'A'. Of course, there was Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, and Artemis (gods, there were a lot of Olympians with a name starting with 'A'), but... I just hoped the first thing that popped into his mind was Athena.
I carefully pointed to Annabeth. His eyes followed my finger tips, and I was amazed at how he was a great actor. No one noticed him as he realized what I was pointing to (or who I was pointing to).
Obviously he knew that there was no goddess called Annabeth, so he started thinking.
"Athena?"
He was a genius. Or it was a miracle.
"We need a god now." Grover said.
Michael looked at me again. Hermes. I had no idea how to deliver the message. Deliver the message... would Hermes help? Hermes delivered messages, and all he had to do was make Michael speak his own name... I started praying to Hermes. Just make your name pop in Michael's head, I thought. Maybe I should add something to it. Please. I didn't know why I was praying to Hermes exactly. But I knew it wasn't for this stupid old game. It was for the mortals. I wanted to make mortals happy. Maybe that was what it was. This might be my last chance to have contact with mortals. I didn't know where that thought came from.
My thoughts got distracted when Michael suddenly blurted,
"Hermes."
"Correct!" Grover exclaimed.
"That was amazing, Michael!" Kristy ran towards him and hugged him, and she let go quickly, blushing. She really does seem like a daughter of Aphrodite, I thought. Annabeth was happy, too, as she skipped towards me.
"I thought he wouldn't be able to guess it," she said. "And I don't think that came from his knowledge. He's got luck."
"I prayed to Hermes," I blurted, just as Michael had. Then I immediately regretted it. I was sure Annabeth would question me, and I'd have to tell her that I'd been thinking about Luke. I was right.
"What?"
"I, um... prayed to Hermes to help Michael."
"Uh... really?"
"Yeah."
That left Annabeth nothing to say.
"Oh." she said.
It was now Michael's turn to ask. He thought for a minute, and then opened his mouth, and asked a question, but I couldn't hear it because somebody interrupted us. It was Kristy.
"Hey, uh, Annabeth?"
"Yeah?" Annabeth's eyes immediately started working busily when she saw the distracted expression on Kristy.
"I... need to talk to you." she paused. "Alone."
"Hey," Annabeth told her. "If you can tell me, you can tell Percy. You can trust him with anything."
"This, not. He's going to laugh at me."
"What is it about?"
"My... my parents."
Annabeth smiled. "If there's one thing Percy's not stupid about, it's parents."
"Hey!" I protested.
"How come?" Kristy asked, frowning.
"His father left when he was young, then he had a stepdad who stinks and played poker and demanded money from him, and then he finally had a stepdad that was proper." Annabeth explained my father-life to Kristy. She seemed quite desperate to let me hear Kristy's story. I realized this parents-talk could be related to the fact Kristy could be a demigod, and if it was, then I was also desperate to hear the story. If so, I wanted her to join either Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter. But then we would have to figure out how she survived for so long... I was thinking about this already! I shook my head, and Kristy looked at me as if I was weird.
"What?" I asked.
"Your situation should have been... difficult." Kristy told me.
"Uh, thanks? No thanks? What do I have to say?"
The girls laughed, and Annabeth started leading us to a corner in the living room, where no one could overhear us unless they came to the corner.
Kristy started after studying me for another few seconds. I let her do that.
"My mother..." she said. "She left me right after I was born. I don't know how she fled so fast after having a baby, but she did. Her name was Sophie Hansen... My dad was very upset when Mom left. He said she was a beautiful woman... also confusing. That's all he would tell me. Or maybe all I can remember. He left me when I was four. He was upset. He said I reminded him of her too much. I didn't know what he meant by 'confusing'. I still don't.
Anyways, since then, I lived in an orphanage for a year, until this nice woman came to pick me up. She was old, and she and her husband were apparently those old people who didn't have children. They were very nice to me, but a year ago, Dad - my not-really-father-dad - he got ill, so Mom had to take care of him, and I felt left alone again. And then I thought I'd try to figure out something more about my past... my parents. But I don't know how to. I just thought, since you're very clever, Annabeth, you could help?"
We stared at her. I realized, even being a demigod, my parents-related situation could have been worse. An orphanage... sure, I've been to tons of boarding schools and got kicked out of all of them, which apparently didn't happen to Kristy, since Annabeth told me she's been going to this school for quite a long time, but I didn't even know what an orphanage looked like. If I rated the terribleness, it was close to Jason's rating.
"I might be able to help you," Annabeth told Kristy. "But if that's what you want to happen, then you have to answer my questions honestly."
"Okay...?"
"Did anything strange happen to you?"
"Strange?"
"Yeah. Did you see anything like... I dunno, a goat coming out of his trousers or a big dog attacking the goat?"
"I... I did!"
"But did any of your friends see it, too?"
"No, I pointed at it, but they said it was a cute puppy or there was nothing, everybody was saying different stuff!"
Annabeth sighed.
"And lastly, did you see anything weird above your head? Like a dove?"
"No... not above my head, at least. I remember playing outside with my friends, but some strange pack of doves flew around me, and then flew away into nowhere."
"Great, Kristy. I know who your mother is, and possibly who your father is if I just ask your mother."
"Wait, what? How can those ridiculous questions tell you who my mother is?"
"Kristy, think about it. Logically, nothing like that can happen, but it did. At least to you. They're not ridiculous questions, they're questions that can answer almost everything - your past, present, and possibly your future."
"My future?"
"Yes, your future." Annabeth decided right there that it was a good place to cut the conversation. "Let's talk about it another time. You have time tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah." Kristy replied.
"Then tomorrow, after school, you go to your house to get no suspicions, and come to my house a few minutes later, when you think no one would spot you coming. You can't tell anybody about this. It might... put more than a few people in trouble."
"Okay... this is weird, Annabeth."
"I know. Life is weird. Let's just concentrate on the game for now."
Annabeth strolled back to where we were watching the game, and Kristy looked at me, as if asking, Is she always like that?
I laughed. "That's her. The always-clever-and-mysterious-at-the-same-time one. But for once, I know what she's talking about. Literally. For once."
Kristy laughed along. I tried to head back to Annabeth, when Kristy held me back.
"I got two things to say." she told me.
"First of all, you're a guy and Annabeth's probably your girlfriend, right?"
"Yeah."
"I think Michael has a crush on your girlfriend, Percy."
"Oh." I didn't know what to think. "Great?"
"You're okay with that?"
"Sure, I mean - Michael's not going to take her from me, is he? I fully understand, since I know how attractive Annabeth is. Also, he's similar to Jason on the outside, and Annabeth wasn't attracted to Jason... and besides, no offense - I don't think Michael is one of those few people who can beat Jason with bravery and loyalty and stuff."
"Bravery and loyalty?"
"You'll get to know tomorrow." I winked at Kristy, as Kristy hit me playfully. She was already becoming a friend. Great, because she was either going to live in Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter anyways sooner or later. Tomorrow, we'd tell Kristy about her mother, and as soon as she figured out she was a demigod, her smell would become very attracting to those stupid monsters.
"Okay, now. But that's not all I got to say. I have a crush on Michael."
"Uh, right. That's kind of confusing... So... why are you telling me this?"
"I was wondering if you could help. I sensed - no that's a bad choice of words - I could feel that Annabeth was your girlfriend, so you're basically a guy with a girlfriend, so I wondered if you could give me some advice."
Oh. Wow. Advice? No. I had two things to say.
"Uh... first of all, 'sensed' is not a bad choice of words-" Kristy frowned, as I grinned at her, but continued. "-and second of all, you need advice? Ask yourself."
"What?"
"Uh, okay, maybe that doesn't make sense to you... ask Piper. She's the expert."
"Piper McLean?"
"Yeah, that's her. I don't know any other Piper. You ask her, she's the best choice."
"Oh, all right, thanks."
"Was that all two things you had to say?"
Annabeth was looking at me, her eyes saying, Now she's got something to say privately to you? I let you hear mine, you let me hear yours! But she didn't come for me, she just stared back at the game when I gave my mischievous grin and a wink.
"No. That was only the first. Sorry if I'm bothering you-"
"You're not bothering me, seriously - don't worry about that. Let me hear what you gotta say."
"Your eyes."
"My eyes." I agreed.
"They're... sea green."
"They're sea green." I agreed.
"It's nearly my only memory with Dad, spending time at the beach, while Dad tried to teach me to swim, but I'm particularly bad at swimming."
"Bad for you, I love swimming. It's brilliant." I told her.
"I just wanted to say... when I start staring at you, I'm thinking about my dad, so don't really mistake me for thinking you badly or something."
"Sure not."
"Okay, then. Let's, uh, go?"
I nodded, and we walked back to Annabeth.
"The game's over," Annabeth told me. "Great timing."
The result? Apparently, Grover had won. Of course, I wanted Michael to win, but if he had, that would basically be ruining Grover's life as a satyr, so I wasn't that upset by the fact that my best friend's life wasn't ruined.
"We have to choose." Nico announced the obvious.
"Who's left?" Calypso asked.
"Percy, Reyna, and you. On the other team - Thalia, Rachel, Piper and Jason. If you ask me, we're at an advantage. I'm not sure Rachel is that good. And we have three experts left, and one of us, an expert, will go twice. But on the other hand, we have to choose who goes first."
"So, the legendary 'Wise Girl', who do you think's up?" Leo asked.
"We first have to decide who's going two times."
"I think it should be either Reyna or Annabeth." Nico said. "They're both clever and know a lot about - well - whatever we're doing here."
"Great idea, except I don't really feel like going twice, so maybe it should be Reyna." Annabeth said.
"I think otherwise," I told the group. "Kristy should go twice."
"What?" Kristy asked.
"You should go twice." I repeated what I said for her.
"What are you thinking?"
"Uh, I'm thinking about winning?"
"No! Why would I go twice?"
"Maybe Percy's right." Annabeth gave the demigods a look that was enough to tell them what the conversation in the corner was about. "I have a feeling Kristy's going to do great."
"And if we put Kristy next, they'll probably go for Rachel," said Calypso.
"Then that's great!" Leo exclaimed. "If Annabeth has her 'feeling', that means Kristy's going to win, and if they choose Thalia, uh, who goes?"
"I'll go." Calypso said.
"Okay, if they say Thalia, Calypso goes, if they say Piper, Reyna goes, and if they say Jason, Percy goes!"
"End of plans." Annabeth agreed. I realized that Nico was grinning next to me. I had a feeling that the guy was getting over his 'dark boy' stuff little by little.
"We chose Kristy!" Nico announced.
"But she already went!" Becky protested.
"We get to put someone twice, remember? Since you have one more member."
"I thought you'd do that in the end." Piper said.
"Apparently not."
"Rachel." Jason suggested to his teammates.
"Okay, then, whatever you say." Jack agreed.
So it was Kristy versus Rachel, just as we (okay, fine, Annabeth and Calypso) predicted.
Kristy was amazing. It was enough to be a hundred and ten percent sure she was a demigod.
"Um... why is it bad if you cut a hydra's head?" Kristy first asked, unsure.
"Two heads grow back." Rachel said confidently. "Okay, so, what is the hydra the child of?"
"Typhon and Echidna." Kristy replied. "Where did the Minotaur live?"
"The - uh, in front of Thalia's tree?" Rachel asked, unsure. I was guessing she was recalling the story that I killed the Minotaur by Thalia's tree."
"Uh, Thalia's tree, there's a Thalia here - but anyways, no. The Labyrinth."
"Oh." Rachel sighed. "My turn... who is Morpheus?"
"The god of dreams, I think it was." Kristy said.
"Correct."
Kristy was winning! Yipee!
"Go, Kristy! It's a K and a R and an I and a S and a T and a Y!" Leo exclaimed.
"Be quiet, she can't concentrate." Calypso snapped.
The game went on, and the scores became 4 : 4. Now it was Rachel's turn to ask. If Kristy got it right, then we would win. If Kristy got it wrong, then it would probably be Rachel's triumph. Rachel's question was... not sharp, kind of - funny?
"Who's Koalemos?"
"Koalemos..." Kristy seemed to have heard of the name, but she couldn't really get the answer. She seemed to need a hint. Then I made eye contact with Leo. He grinned at me, and I grinned back. We went to action.
"Aaahhhh!" Leo exclaimed.
"What?" Calypso panicked.
"Nothing, I'm so handsome! I'm the super-sized McShizzle!"
"But you're not the super-sized McShizzle."
"Yeah, I'm the shaky shaky McShizzle, and you can drink me! And erase things with me, guys!" Leo yelled.
"Actually, he's a stupid guy. He's doing stupid back flips! He's got himself hurt because he cut himself with a stupid pencil case! And then a stupid rain of laptop started falling-"
"The god of stupidity!" Kristy answered with joy.
Leo and I looked at each other again, satisfied, but we started acting like we were surprised that Kristy had gotten it right.
"Huh?" Leo said.
"You got it right!" I exclaimed.
"That's amazing!" Leo agreed.
Kristy laughed, as angry Frank came and hit me - not either playfully or meaning to injure me badly. Just hit me. And then he moved on to Leo.
"Piper!" the other team announced.
"Reyna!" Nico said immediately.
Piper frowned. "I don't think I can beat her," she sighed. "She's the super expert."
"You can do it." Reyna smiled, but her smile didn't look like a smile that wanted Piper to win.
Piper breathed, as Reyna asked her first sharp question from the list of 'TOP 5 Sharpest Greek & Roman Mythology Questions Any Demigod Can Ask'. Just kidding. She didn't go harsh on Piper.
"Who was the first to ride a pegasus?" Reyna asked.
"Bellerophon." Piper answered.
"Good."
"Um... okay, I got nothing to ask... who's Perseus's mother?"
"Sally Jackson." Reyna snickered.
"Gods, Reyna." I told her.
"That's your mom?" Kristy asked me.
"Yeah."
"Right, but I was talking about the original Perseus in the myths."
"I know. Danae." Reyna said like it was nothing.
"Okay, your turn."
Guess who won? Yeah. You're right. Piper won. Nope, kidding. Reyna won. Hurray for Reyna, our praeter the winner.
"Go us, guys!" Leo exclaimed.
"Yeah, sure, go us." Calypso agreed pretend-tiredly.
Apparently, the other team realized that it was useless to talk about who's going to go first between Jason and Thalia, so they just called out a random name - Thalia. Great. I was last.
Thalia passed me to the field (the middle of the room) and she muttered so that only Nico, Annabeth, Piper, and I (the three were next to me) could hear her,
"I'm against a goddess! I'm totally going to lose."
"Don't worry," Piper said. "Calypso's been in Ogygia for ages, anything that's not related to Odysseus, she might have forgotten."
"Right. No Odysseus questions." Thalia agreed.
Nico desperately ran towards Calypso and asked her, "Do you know anything other than Odysseus?"
"Oh, shut up, di Angelo." Calypso smiled. "Mythology is common knowledge for a goddess, even if she's been stuck on an isolated island for a few thousand years."
"Okay, then, I'm trusting you."
Death battle! Sure, nobody died, but definitely one of their eyes should have. Thalia's electric-blue eyes were glowing as if she wanted to kill whoever was in her way. Calypso's were glowing too, but it didn't say 'DIE!', it said, 'Whatever you've been through, I've been stuck on an island with a stupid old curse - I've gone through more. I'm going to win this'.
I was having fun, but I kept thinking, Is this really something to be this serious about? I mean, considering the life or death moments we've all been through... I guess everyone wanted some fun for a while.
My brain, which was fighting against my stupid ADHD, was drained out. And I immediately lost focus. I started thinking through my past and what I would do in the future. I thought about Dad and Mom, Annabeth, my friends - demigods and mortals, the so many monster's I killed and the so many curses they would have muttered before they turned into ashes, people that I hadn't treated them well enough, people that had died for me - not exactly me, for the world since it was going to be doomed if I became doomed, and finally, the only thing that was possibly related to my future - New Rome. I wondered what I would do after my years at New Rome. Go back to Camp Half-Blood? I'd be too old. So I'd possibly make a family in New Rome. But that just didn't seem right. Even if the Greeks had made peace with the Romans and we were now all one, I felt like I wanted to spend my years somewhere Greek-related. I was a Greek demigod, not a son of Neptune. And I was nothing close to being ashamed about that. I was proud. But ignoring that fact would be doing something I'd do if I wasn't proud of who I was.
"Percy?" Annabeth nudged me.
"Yeah?"
"It's your turn, go."
"Uh... it is?"
"You haven't been paying attention, have you?"
"Um... no."
"Well - who do you think won?"
"Calypso?" I asked hopefully.
"No, Thalia did. Turns out, Calypso's knowledge's become a bit... rusty. Just as your sword fight became."
"Hey! I'm training back!"
"I know, just go and do a little warm up with your brain." Annabeth gently pushed me to the fields, and I sat face-to-face with Jason. He grinned at me, not quite friendly, but friend-like. I smiled back.
"I'm not allowed to ask anything like Bellona, right?" Jason asked.
"No way."
"Then no Greek for you too, man."
"Nope."
"'Kay then, you gotta ask first."
I didn't think I'd be able to beat Jason with some common knowledge. Then I had to do something very hard that I knew because of my quests. But I couldn't think of anything. My thoughts were mixed up.
I don't even remember what happened. My brains were all working madly that it didn't have the time to actually remember it for my future after that game. But what I do remember - everybody cheering at the last question, it was Jason asking, if I got it right, we'd win... and we did.
"Percy!" Annabeth ran over to me and hugged me tight.
"How did I even win this guy?" I asked, but I was actually asking myself. "I mean, he's legend, he's been training - uh - to be a Greek and Roman Mythology expert since he was three!"
"You're that good, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth told me.
"Gods, I'm sorry, guys." Jason apologized to his team. "Jackson's amazing."
"Hey, it's okay. This is just some game we played. We have our own, more serious games to play." Piper told him.
"Yeah, right."
He walked over to me and smiled. "Good for you, Jackson."
"Since when did you start calling me by my last name?" I asked, grinning.
Jason thought about it.
"Since we went on the trip down the seas to meet Kymopoleia and Polybotes."
"The Kym incident." I agreed. "I remember that."
"You can't pronounce Kymopoleia, can you?" Jason snickered at me.
"I got dyslexia, man!"
"So do I!"
"But at least you had nine more years to get hold of it. It's not been nine years since I knew I was a demigod yet! In fact, it's only been over four years or so."
"Poor you."
"Poor you. Turns out, all that longer pain was for nothing."
"Only for this game. It helps with the term 'experience'." Jason argued.
"Whatever you say." I shrugged.
So that was how the game ended. I was the hero of our group, defeating - only the demigods knew this - a nine years longer demigod. Sure, I was born first, but I didn't get to know I was one when I was three years old and I didn't get to train either.
"We should go now." Becky picked up her backpack. "We all have to study."
"Like you're actually going to do that," Kristy laughed at her friend.
"Becky's right," Jack said. "It's not only us, either. Annabeth's a studier, and you guys, Jason and everyone, would need their studying time."
"We do?" Leo blurted.
"Uh... you don't?"
"They normally study in the morning," Annabeth said quickly.
"You don't go to school?" Jack asked.
"They're homeschooled by Coach Hedge here." Annabeth said again. "But only I go to school like normal."
"Interesting choice of a teacher." Michael muttered under his breath.
"I agree." I told him. "But he's cleverer than you think."
"I guess. Don't judge people from the outside."
"What's wrong with my outside?" Coach Hedge complained. "You might not know, but this man you're looking at is one who attracted a cloud nym-"
"He's going a bit crazy about his wife these days," Piper cut him off. "And himself, of course. He's getting old."
"Oh." said Michael.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Annabeth announced, as everybody started heading out. She gave her 'look' to Kristy, and Kristy nodded, as if she had understood. But I knew that she didn't. She'd not be able to understand anything before she went on her first quest. It was even tougher for me. I had gone on my first quest since the very first days of Camp, and I had defeated a Minotaur before even knowing what it was, with bare hands, even before that. Not trying to boast. Actually, it was nothing to boast about. The fact that your whole life was a life-or-death moment... not cool. Then I imagined how it would have been for Jason. I settled down a bit. Besides, I had Annabeth. I realized, all the hard things we've both been through made us closer. That was something to thank.
Since when did I think so deeply? I asked myself.
"What was that look for?" Piper asked Annabeth, after the non demigods plus Kristy gang was out.
"We think - by we, I mean me and Percy - that Kristy is a daughter of Aphrodite." Annabeth grinned at Piper.
"Really? My sister?" Piper asked.
"I thought you would've noticed." Annabeth frowned at her.
"I did, but I wasn't sure until you agreed."
"She did look something like you," Jason nodded. "But you're much prettier, of course. You're my Pipes."
"Aww, thank you." Piper fake-overreacted.
"How can you be sure she's no daughter of Venus?" Hazel asked.
"I don't know," Annabeth admitted. "But I could feel something..."
"Agreed." I said. "There was something... Greek... about her."
"Did you guys check on her family situation?" Leo asked. "Because that's gotta be important..."
"Sure we did, didn't you see us in the corner, talking?"
"No." Leo admitted. "I guess I was too much into the game, shouting McShizzle... but of course, I don't regret it - it was so much fun!"
Calypso punched him playfully.
"Anyways," Annabeth laughed. "She promised to visit tomorrow, alone, obviously. I told her to not let any of the others follow her."
"I can help with that," Grover said. "I'm a satyr, I do those kinds of things."
"I appreciate the idea, Grover, but there's a problem - the other guys saw you, and if you go pick up Kristy, it will no doubt take their attention. How about you lead the way in taking her to camp?"
"I'll do that!" Coach Hedge volunteered.
"Annabeth asked me," Grover grunted. "And I say yes."
"I answered first!" Coach argued.
"Okay, stop right there," I said. "Why can't both of you go?"
"Great idea, Percy." Grover answered.
"Everybody's going?" Reyna asked.
"You don't have to," Annabeth said. "But you or Frank - as the leader of Camp Jupiter, I think at least one of you should go, since there could be some possibility that she could be Roman."
"Possibly." Reyna agreed.
"Uh, can you go?" Frank asked carefully. "I'll stay here with Hazel."
"It's all right. I'll go. Who's staying with Frank and Hazel?" Reyna asked.
"Well, Percy's going, and I'm going, since Percy would be the camp leader out of all, and I know Kristy best. Piper would want to come, too, since she's the leader of Cabin 10. And I guess Thalia, Rachel, Jason, Leo, and Nico could come, or not, though I don't think we should travel in such a big group. Kristy doesn't want to see monsters the same day she realizes she's a daughter of the love goddess."
"I met the Minotaur before I knew I could do a flip." I muttered.
"You had an... extraordinary case." Annabeth told me. "It's different for Kristy. If she was such a strong demigod as you, monsters would already have smelled her."
"I guess."
"Let's not worry about this until tomorrow," Thalia suggested. "She's not coming until then, is she?"
"No," Annabeth agreed.
"That's settled, then." Reyna and Thalia said at the same time, and they looked at each other like, What in the world?
We laughed as Coach Hedge skipped around Reyna and Thalia, singing, "Grace and Ramirez-Arellano sitting on a tree, K. I. S. S. I. N. G. First comes love, second comes marriage-"
"I do not marry!" Thalia shouted at the Coach.
"Woah, he was just joking," Grover said, freaking out as he watched the daughter of Zeus's temper rise.
"Still! No one ever jokes about marriage in front of Artemis's hunter!"
"You know what?" I said quickly. "Maybe Coach Hedge meant 'Grace' as in Jason."
Thalia, Reyna, and Jason frowned at the same time.
"Maybe so." Thalia agreed, though she didn't seem sure.
"Uh...?" Piper said.
Finally the game is over! And actually, there's only one more chapter remaining for this season... I know it's very short, but I'll have a Season 2 which connects to this story!❣️