Percy Jackson

We shared so many little kisses that afternoon it was sickening. A younger version of me would've been embarrassed and covering his eyes every time we kissed.

Oh, and when we docked at Camp Half Blood the next day, Clarisse threw our asses into the lake because of tradition or whatever.

Annabeth was two steps ahead of me, thankfully, and shoved Silena and Clarisse in after us.

As the two of us went underwater, I made sure to create an air bubble around Grover's head so that way we could share what I'm sure was the best underwater kiss of all tjme.

I'm going to be so insufferable to everyone else this summer— they're about to have a reason to hate me and to be homophobic.

Getting back to shore, we joined the camp as they made their way towards the other end of camp. Now soaking wet, Clarisse carried the Golden Fleece towards Thalia's Tree.

After all, it was her quest.

I don't always have to be the hero.

Approaching the pine that was dropping needles at a rate that we all knew wasn't healthy, Clarisse took a breath.

"I... I don't know why this happened to you, Thalia," Clarisse said, which was an interesting way to word it— I'd assumed she was going to mention that we didn't know who did it, but we'd continue to search for them. "But we're here now to heal you. Please accept the magic of the Golden Fleece to heal and protect our boundaries for years to come."

Gently, the daughter of Ares rested the Fleece along a handful of lower branches.

The camp fell silent as she stepped back, only the sounds of branches rustling and pine needles rushing to the ground filling the air as we all seemed to collectively catch our breath.

It's a fun idea, Annabeth had told me the other day when talking about Thalia coming back to life. But it's not realistic. I'm not letting myself think about it too much.

Yet, standing in front of me, she looked like she might explode if the daughter of Zeus didn't appear before he.

At first, the effects were subtle— the branches seemed to droop less and less needles were falling.

But then the color returned to them.

And, very rapidly, the needles started to grow as I caught Grover smile— even if the smile didn't make it all the way to his eyes.

"The borders have been restored!" Mr. D announced, fighting a smile if only to keep his façade up. Walking over towards the Tree, he placed a laurel wreath on Clarisse's head. "Clara returns victorious and successful— as we all knew she would."

He turned around to face the rest of us and I remembered something very suddenly:

We snuck out for this quest.

"As for the rest of you... Well, not Garfield. Welcome back, by the way. We'll discuss your mission later."

Grover nodded his head anxiously.

I need to talk to Mr. D about how anxious he makes Grover literally all the time. It's kind of mean.

"Sir, wait—" Clarisse interrupted the god of wine, stepping in next to him. "I know that the others weren't issued and approved to go with me in this quest, but I wouldn't have gotten both Grover and the Fleece back without them. Also, Percy was given an official quest by Hermes, so he shouldn't be in trouble regardless. But we should... Talk about this in the Big House."

"And why is that?"

"Well, you see, Mr. D," Silena picked up Clarisse's point, taking a step to the side to motion towards the two girls she'd been standing near. "We brought more than just Grover back with us."

The two of them stepped forward. Hylla bowed her head.

"It's an honor, sir, I've come to understand that you are Bacchus, one of the twelve Olympian gods." She began, which peaked the camp directors interest. "My name is Hylla, and this is my sister— Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano. We come here seeking refuge and possible training."

For some reason, Mr. D's response to Hylla's introduction was to look at the Diet Coke he'd summoned into his hand moments before. He then looked back at her.

"Dionysus, not Bacchus— though I guess I'll excuse the misunderstanding," he responded. He made eye contact with the lot of us from the quest— which never gets to be less terrifying when you're reminded that his eyes are definitely purple, and returned his gaze back to Hylla. "Why do you all follow me back to the Big House. We have a lot to talk about."

Before walking, the god looked at Chiron's sub, who was presently trying to grab a donut that was running away from him.

"And you, get out of here." He insisted. "Tell the old man to come back— at least he knows how to play pinochle."

Tantalus scoffed.

"What? Why would I leave now? We just got the chariots—"

Mr. D snapped his fingers, and Tantalus vanished.

"What are you all looking at? This isn't new!" The god insisted, urging everyone behind us away. "go, scram! Afternoon activities and chores won't do themselves. We'll keep guard duty on just in case anyone tries to steal the Fleece or something happens to the tree again. Get out of here."

And, afraid of getting turned into a dolphin or a pinecone, the rest of the camp dispersed.

"Come on, brats," he insisted. "I have questions about what you've been doing this week and embarrassing conversations to have with most of you. Let's go, before my Diet Coke gets cold."

•••

Sitting around the ping pong table has never been something I've enjoyed doing.

Yet here we are. All around the table. Waiting for Chiron to return any moment now because I think Mr. D missed him more than he let on.

"So you're familiar with who I am, though we've never met," Mr. D said to the two new recruits. "Can you two some more of the gods for me? In my Pantheon."

"Hm? Uh, sure." Reyna said, sitting up a bit more. "Jupiter is the King of Olympus, his brothers are Neptune and Pluto. He's married to Juno."

"He's your dad," Hylla picked up. "Along with Apollo, Diana, and Miverna's. Oh, and Vulcan. Maybe Mars, though I don't recall for sure. Definitely not Venus and I'm also unsure about Mercury. Then there also like, Ceres and Bellona and a bunch of others. Why do you ask?"

"Curiosity," he insists as a centaur trotted in, definitely judging the atmosphere of the room before doing or saying anything. "What's your last name again? Who's your mortal parents?"

They shared a look before deciding that Reyna would answer.

"Well, our father is dead, but our last name is Ramirez-Arellano. We're from Puerto Rico. Bellona was a patron to our family, though, for many generations, if that helps."

He raised an eyebrow.

"A patron?"

Nodding their heads, Hylla insisted that centuries ago, one of their ancestors did something in military that Bellona approved of. She's helped their family every since, from a distance.

"Fascinating," the god responded, looking at his common law husband. "Do you hear that, Chiron? Bellona's patrons."

"Wait, sorry, pause," Silena interrupted the conversation. "Maybe I'm just drawing a blank here, but who is Bellona's Greek equivalent? I know we're like, using the Roman names right now, and I know a lot of them but..."

The old married couple shared a look.

"Don't worry, Silena, you're as wise as ever," Chiron reassured her. "Bellona doesn't have a Greek equivalent."

The centaur addressed the two new demigods in front of him.

"I don't know how," he insisted. "But I'm afraid we've found ourselves two Roman demigods."

"What... What do you mean Roman demigods?" A few of us asked.

"It's as plain as it sounds, children," he told us, which really didn't help the confusion. "You've somehow found and brought back two demigods who were meant to find another camp— I'll have to contact your recruiting services and warn them that there will be two demigods coming their way. I'm afraid we can't train you here."

"You— but why?"

"No, hold on, wait a gods damned minute," Clarisse interrupted, the language earning everyone's attention, but most notably Chiron's. "What do you mean find another camp? There's more than one camp? I thought this was the only place in the world where we were safe! Have you been lying to us?"

Chiron sighed.

"I haven't been lying—"

"Yes you have been, you old horse." Mr. D stopped him from digging his own shallow grave. "not maliciously or anything, but you have. Don't lie to them even further."

"So where...?" Annabeth asked.

"California, in the Bay Area to be exact." The god answered, instantly noticing Clarisse and Annabeth's reactions because that's so much closer to them than New York is. "BUT! Don't get excited. You're not welcome there. So don't even try."

"Wh... But we are?" Reyna questioned. "Why?"

"You're Roman," he filled in as I saw Chiron bite his tongue. "what? It's true. After the civil war, which was a massive fight between the Greek and Roman demigods, both demigods and gods agreed that some time apart would be needed for each side to heal. So even if the Roman campers believed your claims about being Greek, they wouldn't treat you kindly— Rome never liked Greece, after all. Their training is also extremely different than ours—you would all hate it."

"Wh— so we can't even try?" Annabeth asked. "Not even like... I live in the Bay Area. Or my dad does but... How would they even know I'm Greek? I know all the names of the Roman gods."

Mr. D scoffed.

"Minerva is a maiden goddess, Annabeth," Chiron filled her in. "we can't stop you from trying, but if you get in trouble with the Romans... The fundamentals of their camp are very different. I don't know if you'd enjoy it."

"Would I?" I asked. "Just like, out of curiosity."

"Percy, with your track record, you'd probably get arrested or put on probation in the Roman camp." Chiron told me, which was an interesting concept. Getting arrested at camp. "please, for everyone involved, never go to the Roman camp."

"But—"

"Romans also don't respect Neptune like the Greeks respect Poseidon," Mr. D added on. "so if you think kids don't like you here, they're going to hate you there. Just... Stay here, guys. What's so hard about staying at the camp that's made for you?"

"Oh, I'm not going— I don't like California," I reassured the camp director. "I just wanted to know why I wouldn't like it. If they treat satyrs shitty, though, I already wouldn't want to go. That's like stupid. I just spent like ten months without Grover and I'm not doing it again."

Mr. D just rolled his eyes before telling Reyna she Hylla that they could stay here for the night until Chiron and him got travel arranged for them to go to California.

"As for you, Amelia, you're free to do whatever you usually do at this time." The god told Annabeth. "Just don't sneak out again, it's really a hassle to call your parents and tell them you're missing. Serena and Cornelia, Chiron will talk to you guys in the entrance."

He locked sights on Grover and I.

"There's a talk that I need to have with my grandchild."

What does he want to...?

"Sir, should I—" Grover began, ever so softly.

"Oh, you stay, Gio." Mr. D answered immediately. "This is a conversation for both of you."

There was a beat of silence.

"Did I hesitate? Go away."

Following suit, our friends left us alone with a god that I think had malicious intent, if we're being totally honest.

But, as if my blood pressure wasn't continuing to rise, he just sat on the end of the ping pong table. I was a little surprised it held up, I won't lie.

I didn't dare say that out loud.

But the silence was unbearable.

What does he want to talk about with Grover? If it has to do with the mental link...

"If this is about me technically sneaking out of camp—"

Cutting me off, Mr. D— my grandfather, threw me a small box no bigger than a phone box or a small box of tampons.

"Those are for you," he told me, which felt like an odd victory gift since he seemed opposed to the quest and didn't have any wreaths or anything for us when we got back. "I'm pretty you took health class this year, yeah? It's not rocket science but—"

Why is he talking about health class?

Looking down, I was tasked with the burden of realizing what this box was for and why the logo looked somewhat familiar.

I dropped them on the ground.

"Oh my gods, Grandpa D!" I exclaimed, not even knowing how to properly respond to this because I'm not even 14 yet. "Wh... We're like, 13 and 14. Why?"

"Wh— I'm sorry that I don't know when it's normal for kids to start anymore," he responded defensively as I looked at Grover, who had read the box by now and redder than the strawberries fields in the field— envarassed. "I help run a camp of teenagers, Percy, I'd rather give you the box and have you not use it than to have to make an awkward phone call back home. But speaking of which—"

He pointed at the two of us.

"You can still have sleepovers— it's technically not against the rules," the god clarified, which I was glad to hear because that's a rule I would've broken anyways. "but if anyone reports anything; if I hear anything, I'm telling your dad every single detail."

And although it doesn't show as well being my complexion is darker than Grover's, make no mistake: I was just as red as was.

My jaw dropped.

"You wouldn't."

He smiled.

"I'd love to," my grandpa corrected me with a smug smile. "Not just getting to embarrass you, but to also embarrass my son with the details? I relish in the idea, so don't make me do it. So go, have fun or whatever. Don't forget the box if you're going to have that kind of fun."

Sighing, I made a point of grabbing the box off the ground and putting it in my bag because I'd rather die than have the whole camp see me carry this gift from Mr. D around for everyone to see.

"Anyways, welcome back," the god concluded. "We'll talk about your search at a later time, Grocery. I'm sure that Counsel with have plenty of questions, so I won't bother making you repeat yourself. Go be in gay love."

And then he vanished.

"Says the man who's in an open relationship with a man," I retorted, which got Grover to chuckle and relax a little. "Sorry that he's... Like that. I'm pretty sure Gabe paid him money to have that talk with me so that way he didn't have to do it. I didn't expect him to just give us a whole box of condoms, though."

Grover shrugged as the two of us walked out of the meeting room to witness Chiron giving the lesbian lovers that looked a lot more embarrassing and thorough than ours did with Mr. D.

Then again, Chiron is a teacher— he doesn't care if things are awkward. He'll just continue talking through it like he wasn't demonstrating how to put a condom onto a strap on at the moment.

Grover and I didn't stick around.

"I mean, Chiron and Mr. D always give the talk to most kids once they get word of a relationship," my best friend and now possibly more person said. "but I uh... Didn't expect it to be so soon? Like, I figured that in a week or two they'd pull us aside but... Nope. Did he not... Talk to you last summer then? Like, it was all new for me, but you mentioned that you and Travis were like, vaguely together, weren't you?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, but we were never official and Mr. D was also like, my sort of therapist last summer," I explained. "he knew the whole story and knew that we definitely weren't going to be having sex because like, we were 12. 13. I think he— Mr. D, like, softly asked about it once and I uh, said no and couldn't look him in the eyes for about three days after that. It was awful."

"He's the worst," Grover agreed as we made our way back to the cabins since campfire was already starting to wrap up. "But I uh... It feels weird to ask because we're literally best friends, but also like..."

For a moment, Grover lost his voice. Steering to the right, we headed towards his cabin not too far away from the demigod cabins— I've only been to it a few times before.

"Like we're holding hands. Right now," he continued, the nerves in his voice causing me to smile. "And also I sort of know the answer because we're literally at a camp that gives us a general daily schedule that we are supposed to follow, but I still want to ask because it feels like the nice and proper thing to do and like..."

He took a breath as I squeezed his hand for support.

"What are you doing tomorrow afternoon? Like, during lunch and in the afternoon."

I flashed him a smile.

"Well, if I'm understanding the question correctly, I think that I'm going on a date with my best friend." I responded, causing him to light up. "But regardless, there's really no way he's getting rid of me for the next week or so, so he'll have to get used to it."

Grover returned the smile.

"I think he'd love to have you as a guest for as long as you like to stay," Grover responded, opening the door to his cabin for me. "if you're willing to help dust his cabin."