Percy Jackson

Because I'm not a fucking idiot, I left my wallet in my cabin before going over to Cabin 11 to cuddle with Travis.

I also grabbed the box that Luke gave me the last time we hung out because it was a good excuse to go to Cabin 11 without people being too suspicious and making me anxious.

"Wait, you... Want me to give this to your siblings?" I asked Luke after he'd given me a tour of the Princess Andromeda— a little fucked up, but he was trying to work with Kronos and not get killed, so it could've been much worse. It was mostly monsters on board. He handed me a brown box that was around two feet wide. "Should be I be careful when I give it to them? There's not like, a stink bomb inside?"

Luke rolled his eyes.

"No, no stink bomb, just gifts." The older demigod reassured me. "Not liking our dad doesn't mean I don't like my siblings. I miss some of them, but camp is a... Distance aways, and with school... It's too much. There's also something in there for Annabeth and uh, for Grover. It's mostly just little things that I've seen that reminds me of people. I'm not evil, Percy."

"Well I know you're not evil," I agreed to that last point. "I wouldn't be here if I thought that, I just want to make sure I don't smell like rotten eggs for a week like I did last summer when one of your brothers sent me a fake package from my parents."

Luke chuckled as we got to the dock entrance.

"It was kind of funny, but I've never been one for pranks." He promised. "get to camp safe, alright man? I'll probably see you this summer, right? You're still down to find the cure all?"

"If it gets me away from the assholes at camp? Count me in."

"Cool," Luke responded, sighing. "I... Wasn't happy when I heard the order to poison the tree, but... That's what the cure all is for."

He paused.

"Which Kronos doesn't know we're getting, by the way."

I smiled, noticing how much softer he spoke when he told me that.

"I assumed. Miss your girlfriend?"

"Speak for yourself, Jackson. While you're in the cabin, remind Travis that he's a dumbass. I expect a full report of his response whenever we cross paths this summer— in code, of course."

"I'll write it in shitty Portuguese for you to Google translate."

"I better install better Internet then." He joked and I rolled my eyes, starting to walk towards the subway station a few blocks from here. "see you around, Percy. Tell everyone I say hi."

Walking up to the most plain of all the cabins here, I wasn't even able to fully knock on the door before Connor swung it open; leaving me standing there with my fist up and my other arm holding the box with Luke's handwriting on it.

"Percy, hey!" Connor said, moving to let me in. "Travis mentioned that you might be here tonight! Finally, dude. What uh.."

"What brings the sea scrum crawling back?" One of the other kids around a year or two older than me (unclaimed, jealous) called out from the designated living room area of cabin 11. Where most of the new kids sleep when they don't have a bunk yet.

Trust me, I'd know.

"Luca, shut up." Cecil, one of the younger claimed demigods snapped back. I think he the one that Travis said theorized about our relationship. "You'd literally die three seconds into a quest because you can't fight worth poop and you have zero sneaking skills. He was literally claimed so his dad could blame something he didn't do on him— be better."

Luca rolled his eyes and returned to whatever game he was playing with some other people from cabin 11.

"Whatever."

"Sorry, Luca's... envious of most kids who have been claimed," Travis appeared by his brother, which was a sigh of relief. He knit his eyebrows at the brown cube in my arms. "what's the box for? You moving in for the summer?"

I smiled, rolling my eyes at his joke.

"Uh, no, my overnight bag is on my back," I pointed out, turning slightly so they could see my bag. "this is from Luke, actually. I don't know how he got my address— from Chiron, maybe? But he dropped it off one day on his way back to his apartment and asked me to give it to you guys. He says hi, misses you all. Camp is just a really far drive and he's apparently super busy."

"You've talked to Luke since he left?" Julia asked me, sounding curious.

I shrugged, letting them open the box and disperse the goods.

"Like three times," I definitely lied, but it was an important lie. "He ran into me one day since our schools weren't too far from each other and he gave me a couple of things that were mine that I'd forgotten here last summer. And then he stopped by for like 4 seconds around Christmas just to say hi and drop off some cookies he made, and the last time was when he dropped off the box."

They eyed the box.

"How many smoke bombs do you think are inside?"

"This is Luke, not Connor or Travis." Julia reminded her siblings. "if he did anything, he put glitter in our boxes, but if he's a broke college student now... I think we're safe."

She took the box and thanked me.

"Come on," Travis told me. "While they look through the box, I'll show you where my room is. You look tired."

I rolled my eyes.

"Just a bit exhausted," I agreed as the two of us started down at hallway. I knew where his room was— I'd been in there once before when Luke gave me some toiletries before I was claimed, but it has been a while. "Is it stressful now? Being counselor?"

Travis shrugged as he opened the door to his room— it wasn't hard to figure out which bunk was his based solely on the fact that he still had one of my sweaters , laying on the bed.

"It's not that bad with Connor to share, but the last week or so has been busier than I like." He told me, which made sense. "hopefully it chills out now that we won't be getting more new kids. But Connor just... I don't know."

Are Connor and Travis not getting along?

They've never not gotten along. Or at least, not for longer than a day. Travis has always been proud to be Connor's full blooded brother.

"You don't know what?" I asked in return as the older of the two brothers put my sweater on and sat down on his bed.

Joining him, I set my bag down at the foot of his bed. Seeming to need the comfort, Travis leaned against me, so I wrapped an arm around him, hoping it would help.

"I... Ever since Luke left, his attitude has just changed, and sometimes I don't like it, and other times I don't know how to feel about it." The son of Hermes explained, keeping an eye out for his brother. "He got to be more serious, which doesn't bother me usually— we're counselors now, after all, and he does more than I do with it. Which is great for him— I wasn't going to originally take up being a counselor, but the cabin really wanted both of us to be counselors so I said I'd help."

Nodding my head, I urged him to go on.

"But now... Luke and Connor always got along." Travis elaborated. "Luke was our big brother— he helped raise us just as much as he helped raise Annabeth. But towards the very end of last summer, after Luke had decided that he was going to go to college, and this entire year so far, Connor has acted like he doesn't like Luke and like he's not our family. At first I thought he was just upset that he was leaving after so long, but then he... At our first meeting, he listed Luke as one of the people who he thought might've poisoned Thalia's Tree."

What does Connor know?

Did he overhear Luke talk to somebody?

But if it started last summer... That doesn't make sense.

"He what?" I asked. "Why? I thought Luke like... Loved Thalia, or something?"

"He did!" Travis confirmed for me. "I don't know if they were actually dating because, duh, never met her and it was a sore subject for Luke, but he definitely liked her. Connors whole reasoning was that Luke seemed to not really like the gods his last year or so at camp— after his quest and whatever, but even Mr. D seemed to disregard it because a lot of people don't like the gods. They kind of suck if you're a demigod, right? Or at least, they're sucky parents."

"My sperm donor isn't receiving any father of the year awards soon," I agreed. "Has Connor met your guy's dad?"

Shrugging, Travis shook his head.

"We've seen him on field trips, but we've never spoken to him." He confirmed my suspicions. "I'm pretty sure Connor like, idolizes him, and I... Don't? Like, if he dropped by to say hi, I wouldn't start yelling at him or anything, but I wouldn't want to give him a hug or anything. He's just... There. Or technically, he's not there. But he exists. He has a job to do, and he makes sure that that job involves not having the time of day to see us."

Travis paused.

"I try not to think about it too much," the son of Hermes concluded. "It makes me angry, and I don't like being angry so... Yeah. I still kind of have my mom, and Chiron isn't always great, but... He's there."

"I think a lot of demigods feel that way," I tried to reassure him. "Even summer campers— I'm lucky that my mom actually cares, but that's not the case for all kids that go home, right? They just get sent to a boarding school or whatever? Annabeth was nervous about her dad sending her away when she went home."

"Oh, yeah, it's definitely not a unique thing to us." Travis agreed a little too easily for comfort. "the only decent parent is Mr. D, and even then... He doesn't do a lot with his kids. Enough of that, though, I don't want to get sad or angry. That would be stupid. Is there anything you want to watch tonight? I still haven't watched Camp Rock."

•••
Julia Feingold

"I'm sorry," Alice Miazawa, a camper younger than me, but older than Travis asked. "why is Percy still here? He has an... Entire cabin?"

"Because he has a hard on for Seaweed Scum," and personally, I didn't know what to smack Connor for: calling Percy seaweed Scum, or basically outing Travis to the cabin when him and Percy have obviously been trying to stay secretive.

I smacked him regardless.

"What!?" Travis' little brother asked. "Like most of camp doesn't already know? I thought we didn't like Percy like, as a cabin."

"Well we... We're kind of mean to him after he was claimed last summer," Cecil Markowitz admitted, sounding guilty about it. "but he seems nice!"

"He threatened Tantalus after the chariot race." Luca, the vice president of hating Percy (the president being Clarisse, of course) pointed out. "And tried to ask for another quest. Like, dude, share, what the fuck."

"Okay, to be fair, his best friend is the one that they're supposed to rescue," I was trying to be nice because I knew that Travis cared about Percy, but I was worried that Connor would disregard what I'm saying as counselor. "And he has like, no friends. I would also want to go rescue one of my only friends."

"Oh, yeah, he's really fucked up about it, I think." But thank the gods, Connor didn't completely disagree with me. "He was physically at that meeting last night, but mentally? He's not okay, and I'm sure that Grover being MIA has a lot to do with it. Apparently Grover created a mental link, so like... He knows he's alive. That's how he knew what he did tonight."

"A mental link?" Cecil asked, startled by that. And reasonably so. "is that like... Dangerous?"

"Super," I confirmed, nodding my head. "if either one of them die, the other will die soon after. And if Grover's in danger..."

"Hey, nobody ever called Grover the smartest of the satyrs." Connor figured, shrugging as he handed Alice her box from Luke. "Not that he's stupid, but... He's the one who insisted on getting his searchers license after it killed both of his parents and his uncle. I don't get it."

As I handed him his little package from Luke, Connor hesitated before taking it.

I wonder why he changed his attitude about Luke. At first, I thought it just had to do with him leaving and Connor not wanting to admit that he'd miss him, but... It's been nine months.

Maybe because he hasn't visited?

It's not like he promised he would.

"Maybe he wanted to understand why his parents wanted it so badly," Cecil guessed. "To feel closer to them. I think it'd be nice to feel closer to Dad."

Connor shrugged.

"It would be, but you know the rules, Cecil." My younger brother reminded him. "gods aren't supposed to have contact with their mortal kids. Maybe the next field trip to Olympus they'll let us talk, yeah?"

And I wasn't sure if Connor was lying for Cecil's sake, his sake, or if that's what he truly believed, but I knew better.

Unless something bad happens— something that will threaten the very way the Olympians choose to exist— it won't make them talk to us. To suddenly decide that they want to be our parents.

And even if that happened, I don't know how sincere it would be. How okay I would be with that sudden change.

I'm sure for the younger kids, it'd be great, but... I would know that they're doing it out of obligation.

Because it's not like they care.

I think the number of unclaimed demigods we have in our cabin is proof enough of that.

•••
Percy Jackson

The fact that the Jonas brothers weren't my gay awakening is crazy considering the amount of times I watched Camp Rock as a kid.

The other shocker from that is that I'm not a child of Apollo.

The Apollo kids, though nice, annoy me a lot of the time because they're way to happy way to early in the day. I need like, one of them to admit that it's a charade.

"Okay, but don't all of these people play characters in different shows?" Travis asked like a half hour into the film. "I know for a fact the Jonas brothers had their own show."

"That's capitalism, Trav," I reminded him, giving him a kiss behind his ear as I was currently sitting behind him, Travis sitting between my legs. "the less people they have to pay, the better. And the more likely they are to go batshit insane. The lead in this overdosed on like, meth or something before sobering up."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Disney sucks," I concluded. "but their movies were good."

Sighing, Travis leaned back into me and looked up— I'm not sure he was able to actually see my face due to the angle, but it was cute.

"Percy."

"Hm?"

"So you like, weren't able to get a quest," Travis pointed out, which is not what I wanted to talk about right now. "which sucks and all, but..."

His voice drifted.

"You said that you'd stay over if you got a quest," he recalled, which was true. "and that you probably wouldn't if you didn't. But... You're here still."

I shrugged.

"Still had the box."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to be at camp tomorrow night? We're you planning on going with or without permission?"

My silence might've been a good enough answer for him, but I needed a second to think about a good answer.

"Is that shitty?" I finally asked in return, exhaling. "I'm sure Clarisse could find the Golden Fleece—I'll let her take the credit for it, I don't care, I just... He's one of my only friends and he's reaching out to me and I promised him that I would try and save him."

Adjusting, Travis turned around so he could sit up again and look at me.

"And you're sure you don't want me coming with? I know I'm not a great fighter, but..."

"Travis, you have people and responsibility here," I reminded him, looking down for a second. "I don't want you to get hurt. And plus, Grover's somewhere off the coast of Florida—which means on an island, probably, which means water. And with water, it's just... Easier if I'm alone. I'm sorry."

The son of Hermes exhaled, thinking hard about it.

"Don't apologize, I... Kind of figured you were leaving either way." And I saw him have a thought that I wish he wouldn't have jumped to. "um... Sorry, I'm just... Yeah."

"You're just what?" I questioned. "Travis, I'm not going to kill myself on this quest."

He gave me a skeptical look.

"Are you sure?" I know he had good he had good intentions, but that question frustrated me almost immediately. "With nobody else on the quest, being far away... You've done it before, Percy. Remember? You did it last summer on your quest."

"I... Things have changed since then, Travis!" But he wasn't supposed to know about the St. Louis Arch, so I got defensive about it. "I don't even know where you heard that, but I didn't jump off the St Louis Arch in order to kill myself— I jumped off because I had no fighting chance against the Chimera and figured that if I died, I died. I wasn't even sure if my mom was alive and I was feeling guilty that my dad thought we abandoned him, it's not like... I didn't do it to do it."

"But you also had other people with you then, Percy." But that wasn't the point, and I don't know how Travis was missing IIt.

"I— Travis, if I kill myself, it defeats the whole purpose of leaving in the first place." I reminded the older Stoll brother. "I get that you're worried about my mental health, but if I kill myself, Grover would also die in the process, and I refuse to kill him! I'm leaving so that I make sure he doesn't die— so why would I do something that I know would kill him?"

"Because you're mentally unstable!"

I didn't even know how to respond to that.

It's not that he said it in order to frame something else. It's not that he even used those words— because if you take those words at face value, it's true. I've been unstable for a while now.

A lot of it has to do with Gabe's drinking and the impacts it had on me. Sure, Dad and I get along now, but those few years that he drank felt like hell. It's why he's paying for my therapy, not Mom.

The way that Travis said it, though, is what silenced me. Telling me not that my mental state is unstable, but that I, in my core, in my soul, am unstable.

Last summer when Travis came over for the first time and watched me struggle to hold it together enough to at least try and have a good time, he told me that it was okay to not be okay.

Travis always seemed so supportive of me feeling my feelings.

Did he think that therapy just made all of that go away like it was never there?

"I..." But if Travis couldn't trust me to not kill myself for a week after I just explained to him why it'd be idiotic for me to do so, I wasn't sure I wanted to stay here tonight.

If Travis thought that going to therapy would somehow make the mental illness and childhood trauma go away, I didn't want him to comfort me through the panic attacks and breakdowns.

"I'm going for a walk," I informed the son of Hermes, stifling a breath, standing up and grabbing my backpack from the end of his bed. "enjoy watching the rest of Camp Rock on your own— don't let me hold you back from finding somebody better and not mentally ill."

"Percy, don't be—"

But I wasn't going to listen to him try to justify the fact that he just yelled that I was unstable loud enough for basically the whole camp to hear.

I closed the door, and, as I didn't think about, was faced with the rest of Travis' siblings.

Almost none of which like me.

"Damn, I didn't know Travis was capable of yelling, what—" Alice Miazawa started before Julia nudged her, noticing me.

Alice turned around.

"... Do you think is going on." She finished her sentence much slower before giving me a sympathetic smile. "Hi, Percy. Sorry."

"Mhm," I hummed, trying to stay calm throwing my shoes on. "it's fine, I get it. You're right, he doesn't yell much."

"Are you... Are you guys okay?" Connor sounded afraid to ask, and I guess I don't blame him. I wasn't exactly the most approachable at the moment.

"I was an idiot for thinking that things could be fine again," I answered, weaving through them to get to the front door. "I'm leaving. Thanks or whatever for not killing me as soon as I walked into the cabin. I'll probably never be back."

And that was it. I left the cabin.

Nobody came after me. Travis didn't call out or try to track me down. Nobody else left their cabins to see why the hell I was storming out of Cabin 11.

I honestly thought Beckendorf or Silena would come out to see what was happening— since I told Beckendorf about what was going on with Travis, and Silena just loves to know things.

She won't gossip to the whole camp, but she herself wants to know. It's how she ended up joining Luke to work as a spy.

Nobody came, though. I ran out of energy pretty fast, since today's officially been the longest day of my entire life, and I decided to sit on the beach outside of my cabin.

Is that all I am to Travis? A mentally unstable pretty boy?

"He'll realize how stupid that comment was eventually," the unfamiliar voice next to me made me jump and grab for Riptide. The man next to me chuckled. "Don't try kid, I don't have the same temper or motives as Ares."

"Who...?" But looking at the dude who was standing next to me (as I was sitting), there were no dead giveaways. He was just wearing a tank, some shorter running shorts, and then sneakers. He was wearing a crossbody bag.

"You don't recognize me?" He asked, sounding almost humored rather than insulted. "Damn, I guess they don't look as much like me as I thought. I'm Travis' father. And Connor's. And Luke's."

"You... You're Hermes?" but based off what he just said when he got here, I wasn't sure what the god wanted. It wasn't for me to go crawling back to his son. "Sorry, you don't..."

"Look the part?" He suggested, and I nodded. He shrugged. "Run around a lot— I'm the god of a lot of things. Me and Apollo are both catchall gods, it's weird. Keeps us busy. But I don't have much time— I have a favor to ask, if you're planning on leaving anyways."

"How did you...?"

"You said it in my cabin, kid, I'm all ears." The god explained what I think was a new concept to me that I'd definitely have to remember from now on. "I'm not stopping you, but if you're going, I'll make you a deal so you can tell my little brotber that Hermes sent you on a quest—you didn't sneak out of camp and break the rules."

Slowly, very confused, I just said okay and nodded my head.

Hermes motioned towards a boat in the distance— a cruise ship, by the looks of it.

"See the ship?" The god asked. "It's got a lot of weirdness radiating from it that your old man is too busy to look into. After last summer and now with his kids tree being poisoned, Zeus is paranoid that there's something stirring. I'm not expecting you to like, sink the ship or anything, but..."

He shrugged, grabbing something from his bag that shouldn't have fit in there.

"Scope it out maybe? You'll want this. It'll help you guys on the way there. Good luck!"

"What do you mean by you guys?"

But the god was gone, leaving behind the smell of freshly pressed paper and gasoline.

It didn't make sense to me either.

"Percy?" Annabeth's voice, sounding tired, had my attention. "What are you doing out here?"

But one thing was apparent.

"Big Brother?"

Hermes had summoned a party for my quest.