Percy Jackson

Gabe came with to Montauk for the first time in years that day.

Usually, we go to Montauk over the fourth of July, but since that was so close to when my quest ended (and because Gabe knows how cool the fireworks are at Camp Half Blood), we decided to go right after leaving camp since I still had a bit of time before school started.

Not a ton of time, but there was a couple weeks left of summer. Enough time to get some clothes, skate around, talk to Grover, and begrudgingly find another school to attend.

The quietness of the cabin was nice. While I didn't make a ton of friends this summer, I was still around a lot of people, and that made things overwhelming at times.

There were some days where I'd just have to sit at the bottom of the lake or in my cabin for a bit after breakfast because of how loud or energetic kids would be during breakfast on random days here or there. It was a lot.

So I was more than glad to sit in our little living room while a record played in the background and just eat my lunch after our weekend at Montauk.

"Is the food good?" Mom asked and I nodded. "Good. Did you have fun this summer? Did you like camp?"

But those are both complicated questions, and I'm bad at articulating my feelings, so I shrugged.

"I liked hanging out with my friends," I told my parents, suddenly conscious of the fact that Gabe also went to Camp and probably also has opinions about the place. "Swordfighting was cool but my instructor just left for college, so.... We'll see. It was... Fine, I guess?"

"You guess?" Gabe questioned.

I shrugged.

"I just don't think the kids really want me around," I insisted, even though it's a theory Chiron and Mr. D have both shut down before. "After I was claimed it was like I was... Suddenly some kind of ticking time bomb and I assumed it'd get better after the quest, but it..."

My voice drifted as I thought back on my summer.

"It got worse, I think." I went on. "Grover and Annabeth insist that they don't know why, but Grover's a bad liar and Annabeth just... Yeah. I don't know."

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sure the kids don't not want you there," Mom insisted, but I saw Gabe think to himself— almost like he was pondering how he should respond. "I don't know why they would seemingly shun you after you learned about your dad, but..."

I locked my sights on my dad.

Do I ask?

Brfore I could even consider it, there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" Mom told us, being the closest to the door. After a minute, she returned to tell me that I had a visitor. A friend from camp.

Which, considering the number of friends I have since I didn't think Travis and I would be hanging out much, didn't give me many options.

Especially factoring in the fact that almost none of them are in this state currently.

"Who..." I started as I walked over to be greeted by somebody that I never actually expected to see again.

"Luke! Hey!" I greeted the older son of Hermes. "What's up? I thought you were moving into your apartment."

He smiled back at me.

"I'm in the process of unpacking everything, it's... More than I expected." He admitted, holding up a small box. "I found some of your stuff mixed in, though— assumedly that probably got mixed in with Travis' stuff? We bunked by each other so we always got our stuff mixed up."

"Oh, yeah! I thought I was missing some stuff," I said aloud, stepping out of the way so he could step inside. "come in, sorry. We just finished having lunch, I can show you where to put the box."

So, slipping his shoes off, Luke Castellan followed me into my bedroom and put the box of stuff on the edge of my bed, taking in all .2 feet of space there was to observe.

"Those are cool photos," Luke pointed out the Polaroids I had around my desk. "you have a camera?"

"I used to, it broke last year." I explained, opening the box, which felt... Weird. "before Gabe sobered up, he got mad and... He didn't break it specifically, but he knocked some stuff over and it was in the pile."

The clothes smelled like Travis now.

Why did he want to suddenly end things?

We didn't have to be official, we're still young after all, but I liked what we had. It was nice and relaxed and I thought he really liked me.

"Oh," Luke responded after a beat of silence. "How are you doing with that? I know he's sober now, but it hasn't been long, has it? He wasn't sober when we met, right? That's why you had that panic attack at the start of summer."

"Yeah, he went sober after Mom and I went missing." I confirmed, shrugging. "it's fine so far? I just learned he's a demigod, so it's just a lot of weird, new stuff. I'm glad he's sober, though. I missed him."

"I bet." The son of Hermes said. "If my mom was... Well, she's not on anything, but if she was in her right mind, I might've gone back home, but she's not. Which is fine, I'm over it. How are you and Travis doing?"

I hugged one of the sweaters as the unfiltered thought escaped my lips.

"I don't know why people don't want to be around me."

"You wh— what?"

And then I realized that I said that out loud.

"I just... We're not," I explained to Luke, sitting down on my bed. "Last week I went to ask him about what he wanted to do this fall and the answer to that was nothing, apparently. He officially friend zoned me, which wouldn't be an issue, but he was talking about taking a break from hanging out and he didn't know if he'd even be able to leave camp because of the rules, even though those have never stopped him before and it just..."

Hugging the sweater turned into hugging myself.

"I just feel like if my dad was literally anyone else this wouldn't be happening." I went on. "Because before I was claimed it didn't happen. Kids we're nice to me and they didn't try to avoid me or be short with me or just... I don't know, Luke. You noticed it, too? I'm not crazy, am I? Because Mr. D insisted that it was just anxiety and Grover and Annabeth insist that they don't know why and I just... I don't get it. I don't get why people don't want to be around me anymore."

"Aw, Perce, I'm sorry man," Luke apologized, being mindful of the fact that I was already anxious so physical comfort wouldn't be helpful. He just flashed me a saddened smile. "You're definitely not crazy, and despite what he said to you, Mr. D and Chiron both noticed it. Personally, I think it's dumb."

"You do?"

He nodded.

"So do you know why it happened?"

Luke opened his mouth and closed it again, debating.

"How well can you keep a promise?"

"I'll take it to my grave."

The son of Hermes took a breath.

"So there's this great prophecy that was issued like, decades ago," he began, which I might have heard of. "It's the real reason why the big three stopped having kids—not just because they're powerful. The prophecy basically says that when a child of the eldest gods turns 16, there will be some sort of conflict that could destroy Olympus and that a hero will die that day. And a lot of people assume that the child of the eldest gods will also be the hero, so..."

His voice drifted.

"At first we assumed Thalia since she was your age when we got to camp, but then she... Never got to camp, so..." Luke shrugged. "Ignoring cabin 4, amongst others, you're the only other big three kid. So you're right, and you're not crazy— it's literally because of your dad, and it's stupid because a lot of kids don't live that long at camp and also it doesn't say that you're the hero. Kids are just... Mean. I'm sorry that Travis ended things suddenly. Chiron and Mr. D didn't want us telling you about the prophecy, though, so don't... Don't bring it up to them."

"I..."

My voice drifted.

"They don't want me knowing?"

Luke shrugged.

"Their words, not mine," the son of Hermes confirmed. "Chiron I'm sure doesn't want you to try and avoid the prophecy, even though avoiding prophecies never works. As for Mr. D, maybe he's just worried it'd cause you to like, off yourself, but I'm not sure. The others are also forced to hold their tongues on Chiron and Mr. D's orders."

"The oth... Grover and Annabeth?"

He nodded.

"I don't doubt Grover possibly telling you when he returns from wherever it is he's going now to look for Pan," Luke went on. "Since he won't be on thin ice with Mr. D anymore, he'll probably tell you at least some of it. I honestly don't know how much he knows, just that he knows about the prophecy's existence and that he knows that you're a contender for it."

"I did make him pinkie promise to tell me," I conceded Luke's point, hugging my sweater as it morphed against the lower half of my face, muffling my next question. "does everyone at camp know? About the prophecy?"

Luke went quiet.

"Um... It's hard to say," he struggles to answer. "A lot of the campers who have been there for a long time know because of what happened with... With Thalia, um... We weren't sure if she was considered dead being a tree and all so we kept track of her age, but she turned sixteen— would've turned sixteen, last year and nothing happenened."

Not knowing how to respond, a silence fell between us as I noticed a sort of nostalgia that Luke was grasping for.

It was obvious that the son of Hermes missed the daughter of Zeus—painfully, it seemed at times. I would be surprised to learn that they were dating, but I haven't had the nerve to ask.

"Regardless," Luke cut the silence. "I should probably head out—lots of unpacking to do."

"Oh, yeah!" I responded. "I'll walk...."

But as he turned, the gleam of his sword (what did mortals see where his sword was?) caught my eye.

It was a silver gleam, rather than bronze.

"Is that a new sword?"

"Hm?" Luke hummed and then smiled his classic, cynical grin. "oh, yeah! I call it backbiter, I got it at the very end of summer."

"Is.... Is it a normal sword? Like, is it made out of normal metal?"

"Oh, no. Well... Yes and no," he told me, taking it out of the holster for me to see. "It's half mortal steel, half celestial bronze, so it can cut through anything."

"That's..."

Holding the blade, it was a bit too heavy for me (after all, I've only trained 3 months, Luke has for 5 years), but as I ran my hand along it's hilt, slowly recalling something Chiron told me one day while he'd been telling me more about Riptide.

"I didn't... Realize you could make a sword like this."

Luke smirked.

"You like it?" He asked and I nodded my head, because it was just... A cool weapon. It looked cool. "They can make weapons like this, they choose not to. I had it custom made from a friend. You want one?"

"But wouldn't that be like, super expensive?"

Luke shrugged.

"You know how to paint a wall?"

Confused by the question, I told him that of course I can paint a wall.

"Then come by sometime this week when you're not busy," Luke wrote down his address for me, handing it over. "I'm repainting one of the rooms in my apartment. Help me out with it and it'll cover the sword. It's not that expensive, don't worry—you'll save me a lot of money on printers. I'll tell him to scale it after riptide for weight— unless you want a different type of weapon?"

Asking if a dagger was an option, Luke assured me he should get a set for the same cost as a regular sword.

After all, Riptide always returns to me, but it's not immediately and I'd like to have a good back up if I lose Riptide in the middle of a fight where I won't be close enough to the water to ensure I can fight and survive.

"Then I'll see you later this week, I'll let you know what he says about the daggers," Luke resheathed his sword and put his shoes on. "also, you might want to talk to a child of Hecate or something like that about putting a charm on your apartment to mask your location. Between you and your step dad both being demigods and your mom being clear sighted, it's really not all that safe here."

With that, the son of Hermes left the apartment, and as if he called it, a small monster did try to get into the apartment from our window that was cracked open.

Luckily, Gabe had a faster reaction time than the monster and he was able to hit the thing with the butt of his knife that I was just now realizing wasn't a normal knife, but rather a celestial bronze one.

The monster hit the asphalt and crumbled to dust.

"Hm," Dad commented. "Your friend was a bit on the nose there. Are you hungry still? There's some food left."

Feeling my stomach growl, I took my dad's offer to finish the soup off and returned to my spot in the living room.

I was glad to be home.

"Oh!" Mom said as something must've come to mind for her. "I got a call back from the Immersion School down the road, and they said they'd take you this year!"

But that didn't mean I was excited for school to start again.

•••

Later that week, I went to the address Luke gave me, which was a small apartment in Hell's Kitchen.

"Hey, you survived the commute!" The son of Hermes greeted me at the door, stepping aside to let me in. "I just finished laying all the tarps, so your timing is perfect. Do you want anything to drink before we start?"

"Uh... Do you have a coke?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Do I ever not?"

He had a point.

As we started painting the walls, Luke asked me about any updates I'd gotten from Grover (which was just that he'd made it upstate his first night gone) before we started to talk about school and then eventually camp.

After all, it's the one thing we have in common.

Oh, that and we also vented about our bio dad's because they suck.

"You said you met him once, right?" I asked Luke. "After your quest?"

"Hm?" Luke hummed back before processing the question. "Oh, no, it was way before then. He wouldn't even look at me after my quest."

He paused.

"It was right before I ran away," Luke explained, but that surprised me and he was able to see that. "yeah, it surprised me, too. I'd wanted to meet him my whole life because my mom wasn't in the right mental state to be taking care of a kid, so I always hoped he'd come and either take me away or heal her and he just... And it's not that he couldn't help her or help or check in he just.... Wouldn't... he refused to."

"He refused?"

Luke shook his head.

"The one time we met, it was... Before I left," he reminded me, his shoulders dropping. "Not long before, though. He'd seen my mother and of course she went manic seeing him and I asked him if he could like, heal her or help her in any way, even if that was like, paying for the medication that might help and he just... He asked why he would do that. He didn't do it to her, so why would he cure it?"

"He did not."

"You're right, he didn't, but he did say that." Luke confirmed, putting his paint brush in the water cup as we'd just finished the room he wanted painted. "The gods are awful parents."

"You can say that again. I'm the son of Mr. I'm sorry you were born— like if you really were you would've told my mom to have an abortion."

"It's dumb," he agreed as I put my brush next to his and wiped the paint off my hands. He pulled out a small box from the closet. "It's alright, I might have a plan to make them at least pay child support. But first, your blades."

Carefully, Luke handed me the wooden box.

"Open it."

Doing as he said, I opened to see a dagger and a knife both sitting on top of their own scabbards.

Unlike Luke's sword, which had a clean split between the metals, the bronze, gold, steel and iron in my blades were all fused together so it made really cool swirls almost like marble.

"It's made out of celestial bronze, imperial gold, stygian iron, and regular steel," the son of Hermes informed me. "Nothing's gonna survive a stab from those things— I wouldn't use them at camp, if I were you."

"Because Chiron doesn't like the metal mixing, right?"

Luke nodded.

"Do you like them?"

"These are the coolest things I've ever seen, Luke."

He smiled.

"I'll tell my guy that you like the work," Luke responded. "There's one more thing, though, if you want to keep them."

Curious, I raised an eyebrow..

"Like what?"

"Oh, nothing big." He reassured me, crossing his arms. "Let's make a deal. I'll teach you how to use those, and I'll keep teaching you how to not kill yourself with your sword."

He paused, extending his hand towards me.

"You help me do something so our parents finally pay their child support."

But it was almost too easy.

I shook his hand.

"It's a deal."