Hi, Sabrina Green here! The one, the only, not like all those doppelgangers you no doubt saw running around not updating recently. I just just wanted to say hi. That's all. Hi. How's life going? Well I'm about to make it better. Look I even updated! Also just wanted to say a happy late birthday to Twila! And I'm please to announce that you might find another one shot on it's way very very soon!

And hey, Thanks.

Welcome to Halfblood 2

To be fair, I felt kinda guilty for her.

"Yeah man," Grover said, having suddenly become magically stuck to my side all day after I came back from my kidnapping with GhostsandAngels, "I really hope they continue it. Maybe I can get in touch with the producers and help with their broadcasting. It seems like they barely know what they're doing, sound wise."

Grover was walking me to the school doors, where we would part finally, me walking home and him taking the bus. The halls were buzzing with students all taking about me.

About my show.

It sent a chill up my spine and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

I could easily out pace him, but despite his refusal to stop talking about the topic of Welcome to Halfblood, I felt like I owed him something. The guy always tried to include me, was always open about everything, and he always waited for my thoughts on something. To be honest, after agreeing to do another show something in me changed.

A gut wrenching feeling was working it's way around my stomach and my chest and my mouth. It got so bad that I didn't eat my lunch, which Grover noticed. He tried to give me his school French fries in return for my enchilada. It took me a couple hours to realize this feeling was guilt and dread mixed and boiled right there in my own body.

Guilt because Grover was really trying to be my friend and the only thing I wanted him to do was bug off. I didn't want this scrawny, limping, disabled kid chasing after me, trying to be my best buddy. I just wanted to be left alone.

Dread because I knew one day in the unforeseen future someone was going to know. Someone more than Bianca and Nico. Someone who was not nice. I think I feared that unknown certainty more than anything else in the world.

"I wonder where they record," Grover wondered aloud, "do you think they use the radio station? That would be awesome! I've always wanted to get in there. But they probably just use a home recording microphone. That would make more sense-"

"PERCY!"

My head whipped up and I tensed. It was a second before I realized no one was hurt or bleeding. It was just the lovely voice of Bianca flagging us down at high speeds.

She was out of breath and skidded to a stop in front of us. It was the first time I had seen her in the light, and I admit she was a little cute. Black hair, freckles, her beanie was green and her face was glowing with happiness. I had to wonder if she really had been smiling all day.

"Hey Percy, sorry, but I-" she started, but I shook my head at her and tilted it towards Grover who wasn't paying attention.

"Hi!" Grover said, "name's Grover Underwood. I don't think we've met before. Are you a sophomore?"

Bianca blinked, "Bianca, uh, Di Angelo. I'm a junior."

"Do we have any classes together?" Grover's brow furrowed, "your voice is so familiar!"

Her cheeks reddened. "Anyway Percy, I just wanted to grab your number so we can talk later. Is that okay?" She must have not picked up at my hinting.

I didn't say anything, which Grover took the chance to jump in, "he's, um, well he's mute."

The light bulb went off in her head. "Oh!" She said. "Oh." She repeated. "Texting then? I mean, it's important for us to set up a date. Dad would totally be pissed if we just showed up randomly."

I shrugged. She had a point. I forgot that their dad was the owner of the radio station. I mean it was just one more show. But I relented my old obsolete flip phone for her to add her number and whatnot. Grover watched the exchange curiously.

"Date?" He echoed in a small tone.

Bianca handed back my phone beaming. Her freckles really stood out when she did that. "Thank you Percy! I'll text you later!"

She was running of before I could even nod. My throat felt dry, just thinking about doing another show. Talking in front of so many....many people.

Them hearing my every word, every breath, every sound I make. They could make the connection in seconds flat and I would be even more scandalized than I am now. The mute boy was only pretending to be mute! What a jackass!

They wouldn't understand.

Grover slugged me in the arm playfully, "Dude come on! You don't even talk and she just asked for your number?!"

I gave him a look that told him he was crazy. But what could I say? Or write? That it was only because I promised to help her and her brother's band?

Grover was going to think we were getting it on either way. So I let him off with another one of my famous shrugs, and we continued walking to the main doors.

I should've known that would come back to bite me in the butt. After all, we were far from alone in that hallway. If I had been paying attention I would've seen the black haired boy who was standing in the middle of the hallway staring after Bianca Di Angelo.

But I didn't.

I was too busy running into immortals.

"Hey!" The voice of the one and only immortal blond shrieked and before I knew it she had stumbled across my path of waking and we both hit the ground. Her papers exploded from everywhere like the laughter from the kids around us.

Annabeth's cheeks were red, full on red. Her curls were down, her eyes hard, but I noticed that she was also biting her lip. Her news letters fluttered all around us like paper butterflies.

"Ooh!" A girl towering over us smirked, "sorry, Annabeth!" She said falsely, "I didn't see you there at all, your immortal highness!"

"How's this!" A guy with a cowboys jersey hurried with laughter and kicked a stack of Annabeth's newspapers.

"Stop it!" Annabeth shouted at them, "I worked on those!"

Another girl in a cheerleader uniform popped her gum and smiled revealing plain teeth where her fangs should've been. "Oh yeah, we know, Annabeth!" She smarted, "we just thought we'd redeliver Riptide's words since you obviously didn't hear them the first time!" The cheerleader hissed, "no one is ever going to read your dumb articles, Chase!"

Annabeth's head dipped but almost immediately she threw it back up in defiance. It was like she got an electric shock from her own secession. Annabeth got up scooping a handful of her own flyers into an untidy pile. "You're a slut, Kelli! Everyone knows it, and I didn't even have to do any research for that one!" She stormed off furiously blinking her eyes and still leaving a dozen flyers on the ground.

The gaggle of gigglng girls laughed to themselves and pranced off. The guy slammed my shoulder as he walked after--the only sign that Grover and I existed to them. Annabeth's papers were strewn about the corridor, and the sight of them made that guilty feeling in my stomach rise. 

"Hey, Perce," Grover nudged my side, "Are we going? They aren't going to hold the bus forever." 

I glanced up at him realizing he didn't see what I did.

"What's wrong?" Grover asked, "Was it Annabeth? You know, Riptide was right. She is bossy and annoying."

A cold shiver ran down my back but I shook it off. Riptide was right. Why do I care that Annabeth just ran off crying? She's never done anything for me, except kindly shove me out of the way on her race to discover the biggest story of the day. She's a reporter. She can deal with a little criticism. 

Besides, after the next show, Riptide is going to retire and no one will care about him ever again. Someone else will do something stupid and people will forget about invisible woods and the hole to the center of the earth. Annabeth will be free to go on being a nuisance.

I waved Grover on telepathically telling him that I was going to clean up the mess, like a good citizen. Grover seemed to get the idea and wished me luck on both my homework and the walk home. He wobbled off and I crouched to the ground of the mostly empty hallway and scooped the papers together. The newsflyers were all our school color, orange, with white designs and black lettering. Annabeth's name was printed in neat centered text right under one of the articles. I scanned it without meaning to. Just a bunch of normal school-ish stuff. 

"Oh!" A voice said and I looked up. It was none other than Silena, herself. I recognized her from our Math class. Silena Beauregard, a senior, ran a successful love column on the side of the school newspaper, called Cupid's Arrow. Today's feature was a bunch of Q and A about how to determine if your crush liked you back. She seemed to be surprised that anyone was helping clean up the mess. 

"Sorry," She said, though I wasn't sure quite why she was apologizing, "I-- thanks. Annabeth's been having a rough day today. I'm glad at least someone is still a nice person. Riptide's a jackass! He doesn't know a thing about what Annabeth puts into her job!" She also let out a string of curses about my alter ego that I pretended didn't make me want to fall off a cliff. 

Silena didn't wait for me to respond which was good; I didn't have a way to express how bad I felt. She took the flyers from me, a stack of like thirty that the boy in the Cowboy's jersey had kicked all over the place.

"Here," she said, handing me a copy, "for the way home?" She bounded off before I could protest. Suddenly I was alone in a school hallway with the orange flyer and a weight of guilt crushing me to pulp.

I shoved the paper into my pocket and sprinted to the doors.

***

I didn't hear from Bianca Di Angelo until about five o'clock on Saturday, which was a total of twenty six hours later. I was relaxing at my house, headphones on, and some random music playing while I tackled the enormous pile of history homework I had left to do. My mom was working so it was just me tonight. It was laid back.

My phone buzzed which shook me from a dream about the Causes of the American Revolution. I was just getting to the Tea party part too. The text was simple.

Open tonite room 15 hurry

I stared at it for a moment before heaving myself from my bed and rushing my bedroom door. I scribbled a note on an old envelope for my mom to find later: some lie about a study session. I didn't think my mom was going to look past that. After shouldering my carry on bag, I yanked on my jacket and flew out the door.

On average it would have taken me maybe fifteen minutes to run to the radio station using back roads and shortcuts. I could be there and record and get back with still hours left before mom returned and found me melted into a pool of my own regret.

At least that was the plan before I plowed into Grover at the intersection two streets before the station. I had gotten distracted by a grandmother hobbling down the sidewalk while whacking people with her cane. Grover had been standing in the crosswalk hub waiting for the light to change.

You can guess what happened.

My shoes skidded on the concrete as I let out a sharp inside of panic. We both fell into the road, which should've ended Riptide's short lived career. Luckily the silver sedan that should've run us over had new brakes.

"Percy?" Grover winced, sitting up. I myself was panting heavily, just barely refraining from sprinting off. I didn't need a mirror to know my face was red. I tried to help him up, communicating in a flurry of facial expressions and hand movements how sorry I was.

"What the Shit! You idiots!" The familiar voice yelled out from the silver car, the door popped open and Annabeth was there glowering at both of us. I checked my watch quickly  wincing at the time. Not only did I not want to talk to the blond reporter (who I have basically embarrassed to Hell accidentally with this Welcome to HalfBlood story), but I also did not want to keep the Di Angelo waiting.

"Dude are you okay?" Grover asked, though I should have been the one asking him. He rolled his wrist in his hand wincing at the pain.

I pinched my index finger and thumb together, making universal sign for "ok". Then I tapped my own wrist mimicking a watch.

"Late?" Grover guessed, (I'm starting to find that he's really good at guessing).

Annabeth punched her horn, and Grover shot her an irritated look. "Would you hold on a minute? Not everyone is an immortal, you know!"

Her face turned a cherry red with humiliation, and she said something probably not nice about Grover's mother in a foreign language. I nudged him and shook my head, feeling horrible that even someone like Grover would give her Shit like that. In her defense we both had almost died, and were standing in the middle of the road not moving.

Grover went to say something else but I slipped away. My heart was beating erratically in my chest. By the time I got to the recording studio door and had knocked my nerves were frayed to High Hell. Every person I saw made my chest bubble with panic. They know, My brain kept telling me. They know you can talk. He'll know you can talk.

"Percy!!" The thick red metal for opened after, revealing GhostandAngels in all their glory. Bianca looked about ready to hug me, Nico spared me a glance before heading back to his phone.

"Come on, we have Studio 15 tonight," she linked our fingers and dragged me towards the labyrinth of recording rooms. I hoped my hand wasn't nearly as clammy as I thought it was. Nico muttered a hello, as if my time here was indifferent to him.

I tried to think of what my mom would say if she knew I was running around inside a mostly empty building, holding hands with an obviously pretty girl, and ignoring my homework. I'm not sure if she'd be relieved i was making "friends" or upset because I promised I'd keep up my grades this year.

I hate when my mom's upset.

"So we have a surprise for you!" Bianca chatted, happily. "But first sign this paper."

Out of nowhere she pulled a thick stack of papers and shoved them in my face. They were stapled in the corner but with our brisk pace and my doubly sickening dyslexia, I had no clue what it read. It could've been a script they made for me, or it could've been a print out of my mom's book.

"Just scribble it on the line," Bianca procured a pen for me as we walked and pointed at the bottom of the front page.

Now. This is where, looking back, I know I fucked up. But in my defense, Bianca was standing really close (she smelled like pomegranate), I was out of breath from running here, feeling guilty because Grover was a good person, and still buzzing from the close call of the immortal's silver car.

I signed without a second thought.

"Great!" Bianca took the paper back, "Here we are! That was your contact. You are now leased to us for one entire year, as Riptide. You get twenty for every episode you make, and twenty five percent of any related income, such as giftshop buys, book publishing, or something else unexpected. Nico and I have--"

I dug my heels into the carpeted floor forcing her to a stop. Then I really looked at the papers and realized that yes, predictably, I just signed a contract.

"I thought it was going to be harder." Nico said, "Do you normally just sign things people hand you?"

I ignored him and tried to focus on breathing. Maybe they didn't understand, but this was a short thing. I didn't have a year to put into this! My throat itched at just the idea of talking. Taking to real people, knowing people were going to hear me.

"It's honestly not bad." Bianca reasoned lightly, but I could tell she had planned this trick really easily. It was fair then for me to feel stupid.

I couldn't remember the signal for "can't" so I just shook my head.

"If you refuse, at this point we are allowed to reveal your name to the watchers."

I'll be honest, despite my muteness, I didn't ever really study sign language. After all it takes two to understand and literally no one else, outside of my mom, ever cared. I did however know one sign that everyone knows.

"That's a rude gesture," Nico said. "Do you talk to your mother with those hands?"

I wanted to punch him. Instead I found another way to communicate: I ripped the contract in halves and let the tattered papers fall on the ground. Bianca stared at them and sighed as if I was being a difficult child.

"Did you really think I was video taping that?" She asked, waving a phone at me, "Really Percy, we're the children of a contract maker and breaker. We know every trick in the book. You best give up now."

"And really it's not bad at all. You get to influence the entire teenage population and keep your identity a secret for whatever reason you want that to be. It can be fun if you want it to be." Nico said with a dark grin, "Do you think Mayor Zeus has heard about it yet? Oh My Gods, Percy, you're intangible! No one knows who you are except for the three of us, and our father refuses to recognize us as a channel. You can say and do anything, and no one can stop you."

My throat started itching more with every word he spoke. I had to lea back against the wall as to not fall over myself. My brain danced with the sound of broken glass and gunshots, the feel of blood dancing over my fingers and pressure on my chest, dont scream, dont cry--

"Percy?" Bianca asked softly.

I hadn't realized my breathing had rapidlly inscreased. The shallow puffs left my lungs screaming, and it took a real effort to get one inhale in.

"Is he having a panic attack?" Nico asked, "Should we call an ambulance? Does this ever happen to Dad?"

She waved him off, and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, "Are you okay?"

My hands were shaking. I swear for a moment I could see the blood on them. But Bianca grabbed them in her own, sending a strange amount of warmth into them. Her grip was strong enough to anchor me here against the onslaught of memories I wish had left behind when we left behind Montauk.

I looked up into Bianca's dark brown irises, managing a shaky and totally not covincing nod.

"Look, I'm sorry about the contract. We are really desperate here. I don't want to be a lawyer, and Nico does not want to be brain surgeon--"

"Too much blood." Nico put in, though I wasn't sure which career path he meant.

"--if we really can not do this then we won't. You have to want to do this as much as us if it's going to work." Bianca handed me her phone which had the one recording of my stupid mistake on it. I knew where the delete button was and that it would only take me all of seven seconds to be done with her and her brother and this dumb idea. My fingers were clumbsy against the cool screen.

I pulled up her notes and added a new one, typing as fast as I could with out mispelling things. The Di Angelos were patient. Nico read it out loud when I was done, "Well, I did promise you one more show."

He grinned, and Bianca did too, if only more sadly. "Thank you, Percy. Studio 15 is right here. We've still got a good thirty minutes before Dad will notice we are gone. I can show you how to record and a couple of buttons real quick."

True to her word it did only take a couple moments. I always had a thing for memorizing, so I nodded when she finished. She hovered a second right over my shoulder, her pomegrante smell oddly flattering in the small space. "Do you want us in here or out in the hall?"

I rubbed my arm nervously, a tinge of guilt coming back, but I motioned for them to stay out side. Nico opened his mouth to protest but Bianca already had his arm and was dragging him back out of the door before he got a single sound out. The door clicked and I was alone with a micro phone.

I stared at it for a second, willing back the memories of Gabe with memories of my mother, her sweet cookies, her kind smile, her forgiveness even when I was making everything difficult.

"The world is like an Egg." I said, "the sun is the bacon. The entire universe is just one big strange anology for breakfast."

I hit the same button I had hit last time, the one that played some foreign theme song. Bianca had said that it was okay to claim as our for the time being.

My voice was not nearly as coarse as the last time I had used it but it still hurt a bit to talk. I expected it though. How could I not? "Welcome to Halfblood, Listners!

"Today I have a new top story for you folks out there as well as an old story, and a story yet to be told by anyone and one that will have been told if only you hadn't turned around quite so suddenly. I have lots of stories, listeners. You might be surprised at what you hear on the radio.

"The schedule for last week is as follows: on Sunday there was a picnic, on where large Frog appeared. The secret police showed up on site with their giant frog tazers and city issued giant frog harpoons but it turned out later that the frog was not a frog at all, but merely a sheep. It was also a normal size, small even. Eyewitnesses were hard to find as no one actually showed up for the picnic.

"On Monday and Tuesday there was a fire in the inivisible woods which left horrible blood curling screams althroughout the day and night and day and night and then for those seven minutes of black space that occurs outside of time right after Tuesday but before Wednesday. The screaming and the fire then abruptly shut off and the invisible woods were once against invisible. Bobby Bushwick, an ordinary citizen of HalfBlood, was then seized and sent to reeducation after wandering in, showing that the laws are still intact."

I stared lazily around the room, kicking my feet up on the dashboard between a bunch of buttons. I hadn't realized but my mouth had curled into a smile. It was odd, odd enough that I pause and extra couple of seconds to wonder on it. I thought I had forgotten what smiling felt like.

"The rest of the Week was cancelled do to an epidemic of the earthworms, which most people infected at still sneezing out earthworms as we speak. I contacted Nurse Apollo of the Halfblood Hospital where all cases are being treated, and he shared with me a story of the latest tragety in Hiaku form:

Earthworms are so gross
My girlfriend left me again,
I am so awesome."

I heard a crumpling of paper as I stretched out. My confusion was resovled a moment later when I found the orange newsletter in my pocket from a the other day. I guess that meant these pants really weren't clean. Huh, imagine that.

"I have here a public service announcement for all citizens of Halfblood. The Hole to the center of the earth thanks you for your cooperation in giving it your eggs. It demands that next we give it all the vegetables--sorry, I mean staplers! Staplers! This things handwriting it so...hard to read! I mean it looks like it didn't even have hands when it wrote this! Did it not go to the Academey for Holes school of handwriting? How unproffesional!"

I looked down the newsletter picking out pieces that applied to me and trying to feel like I wasn't about to throw up every time I saw Annabeth's name. I felt really bad about bashing her, especially when I saw how much it had affected her, now. I might have just turned her passion into a career of scorn.

"I don't have much else to talk about Listeners. I can't tell the future, and today seems to be realitively credible. I mean I almost believe it is a normal day. Everyday is normal. Except on Feburary 11. I'm not sure why that one isn't normal. It just isn't. I'm sure some supernatural force is making it so.

"But listeners, it is not the fault of supernatural forces that we can not see them, that we can not sense them. We are unbelievers in a small town of believing. As our lovely Mayor Zeus loves to inform us, "Those that are unbelieving are most likely to not be taken down by the secret police in a bout of unnessary violence." Our disbeleif brings us together today, and tomorrow and possibly again the day after that. Maybe one day it will even bring us something good, like pizza that was strange purple lump free from the pizza palor across the street from my studio. Maybe it will bring us no useless homework from Mrs. Dobbs, that no one will do anyway.

"Maybe one day far in the future it will bring us understanding, of one another. On that day we will no longer be a high school student, the emo goth, the straight A's, the jackass jock, or the popular princess. I will no longer be a voice on a radio and immortals won't run newspapers and it won't matter because we all will understand.

"Except the Mayor's wife Hera because there's no way that crazy lady is ever being understood." 

I sighed, checking my phone. My mom had sent me a text asking me to come home. Something about big news. I felt glad for her. I guessed it was about her book. Still my heart sank a little in my chest, I blinked a bit of reality, knowing that this was my last time in here, last time recording because gods help me if I do it again I might have a heart attack at age seventeen. Still there was a buzzing under my skin, a type of electricity that made me feel more alive than I had in years.

The tiny room felt...safe, almost.

I knew what I had to say. I had to say that I was done. I had to tell the large amount of blind listeners that I was not doing another session. The words stuck in my throat like solid objects.

"I am Riptide, Listeners. This is...Goodnight, Halfblood. Goodnight."

I crumpled the orange newspaper in my hand and standing up. I held the recording switch for a moment before saving the recording. Then I switched the recording off and headed towards the opposite wall and the door. Bianca was waiting nervous jumping seven feet in the air when I opened the door. She was holding a new packet of papers, which I recognized as a new contract. Nico looked up from his phone with a grin.

"So?" He said as if he expected me to reply.

He was holding a black pen in his left hand.

In a moment of weakness, I took it and signed the papers properly this time. I nodded to both of them and walked myself out as they both laughed with unadulterated joy.

It was a mistake, but I'm sure if I had to do it all over again, I would.