Friday, 7-13-18

"Holy mother of - "

I leaned back, narrowly avoiding being decapitated by Jason's blade. Well, maybe that's a bit dramatic. The swords were plastic, but that still would have hurt.

I swung my own sword back, almost landing a solid hit on his side. He side stepped and countered with an obvious feint to the right, before aiming for my sword arm. I twisted my blade around his and the sword fell from his grip. I held the tip of my sword to his sternum, fencing style.

"Nice job, Percy," said Quintus, Camp Half-Blood's sword instructor. "I can't believe how easily you've picked up such a hard skill after only a few days.

I smiled humbly, dropping my sword arm and stepping away from Jason. "Thank you."

"Where'd you learn that disarming technique?" Jason asked, taking a swig of water.

I grabbed a bottle of my own. "I don't know. It just felt natural, I guess. What's next?"

"Well, we have a bit of free time before dinner, and then capture the flag."

"Oh, right." I forgot that it was Friday. I had been at camp for four days, and it was pretty amazing. I already had met a load of amazing people, such as Tyson and Jason. My bond with some of my school friends was also growing. Travis and I were becoming great friends, and his younger brother Connor wasn't too bad either.

I wiped my face with a towel and put my sword back in the bin with all of the others. "Do you want to head to the beach? It's nice out today."

Jason shrugged. "Sure."

We left the arena and followed the river to the fireworks beach. "So, where are you from, Jason?"

He bit his lip. "California. When I was little we lived near Sonoma Valley, but when I was a little older we moved to San Fransisco."

"Who's we?"

"Me and my stepmom. My real mom died when I was maybe eight, and my stepmother hated my sister. She ran away, but since I was so young I had to stay with June. That's her name, I mean."

"Right. So why'd you come to the east coast?" I asked.

"I was tipped off by my school pen pal that my sister was in Pennsylvania. It's been a while, but she might still be there."

I frowned. "What's her name, Jase?"

"My sister? Thalia."

"Huh. And your last name is..."

"Grace."

My eyes widened. "You're kidding, right?"

Jason furrowed his eyebrows. "No. Why would I?"

"I know your sister. She's my cousin. So are you, apparently. But she told me that you were kidnapped, and your mom is still alive, as far as I know."

He stared at me. "What?"

"Maybe...how old were you when you moved to San Fransisco?"

"Two," he answered nervously. "You don't think that June was just...lying to me, do you?"

I shook my head uncertainly. "I don't know, man. But what I do know is that I'm bringing you to see Thalia as soon as this summer is over."

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Dinner was just about to finish up, and everybody was buzzing with excitement. The teams for capture the flag didn't seem very fair to me, but maybe I wasn't thinking correctly.

On my team, the blue team, was the Athena, Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, Zeus, and Poseidon Cabins. On the red team was the Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite - if my knowledge of Greek mythology was up to date, that seemed like a controversy waiting to happen - Demeter, and Dionysus cabins.

The teams had pretty equal amounts of people, but very uneven talents. Let's just say that the Aphrodite kids wouldn't be doing much fighting, but the Dionysus kids were going to be some nasty nuisances to the blues.

Everybody gathered by the woods directly after dinner. The Athena kids had taken on the task of leading the blue team - figures. One of them was passing out the helmets that had blue horse hair plumes, while another was assigning positions. I got put on offense, meaning I was after the flag.

Everyone got in their spots and Chiron blew a whistle. Immediately, we began to charge into action.

As expected, the blue team won the game quite easily, although it still was very fun for my first time. I got a few people out and wasn't even touched. I was also the one to eventually steal the other team's flag.

"Nice job," Nico congratulated. We were both on the blue team, seeing as he was an Artemis camper.

"Thanks, Neeks. Where's your sister?"

"Bianca is with the other Artemis girls. They were saying something about sneaking off after curfew tonight to practice archery," he whispered. "Bianca's nervous, but I think she's going to do it."

I smiled and ruffled Nico's messy black hair. "How have you been liking camp? I feel like we haven't talked much."

"I love it. There's always so much going on, and I made some nice friends. Have you ever met Will?"

"Will Solace?"

He nodded. "Yeah. He's in my homeroom at school. He's really cool. We're great friends. Anyway, he goes here too. He's an Apollo camper."

I nudged his arm. "I'm glad you and your sister are coming out of your little shells. I'll catch up with you later, alright? I need to go and speak with Chiron."

"Okay."

I walked off from my little cousin and darted to Chiron, who was listening intently to one of our younger campers. She couldn't have been older than ten.

"-and then, I jumped out of the tree and knocked this huge guy to the ground!" she exclaimed.

Chiron chuckled. "Wow, Lacy. Impressive."

She grinned. "I'm going to go and tell Mitchell!" Then the little girl whirled around and ran straight into me. "Whoops! I'm so sorry...Percy?"

"Lacy! Hey, what's up!"

She smiled up at me. "I didn't know you were here. I haven't seen you at all this summer!"

"I just got here Tuesday," I explained. "I wanted to spend the summer with Annabeth, but she left for a vacation with her family this week."

"Oh. So are you two dating?"

I blushed, and I heard Chiron laughing. "No, we're just friends."

"Even after she wore that pretty dress?"

I nodded. "Even after the dress."

"You must be a chicken, then. Drew told me that you guys are soulmates."

"W-what?"

Lacy grinned, nodding happily. "Yeah. She said you could tell by the way you guys look at each other when the other isn't watching. Mom agreed, too, and she's the expert."

I rubbed the nape of my neck. "I guess I was being chicken. I don't know, Lacy. Maybe we will get together soon. But I have something important to discuss with Chiron, so I'll talk to you later. Congrats on tackling somebody, though. I heard all about it."

She giggled, skipping away to tell Mitchell, presumably. I stepped closer to Chiron.

"Hey," I greeted sheepishly.

"What do you need, Percy?" he asked. A knowing smirk was dancing on his lips.

"I know that it technically isn't allowed, but is there any way I could use the phone in the Big House to contact somebody?"

He stared down at me sternly. "How important is it?"

"It's pretty important, sir. I think that I found my cousin's little brother that got kidnapped twelve years ago, and I need to tell her."

Chiron's lips parted. "A camper here?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Jason Grace. It's very necessary, Chiron."

He hesitated, before nodding. "Go ahead, but try not to take too long and don't tell anyone besides Jason. I don't want people to think they can start breaking the rules now that troublemaker Percy Jackson has rolled into camp."

I smirked. "Of course. Thank you."

Chiron nodded, and I took off from the woods to the Big House.

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I dialed Thalia's phone number on the old landline telephone that was hooked up behind the desk in the entrance of the Big House. As I waited for her to pick up, I tapped my foot nervously, spinning in the chair at the desk.

"Hello?" her familiar voice answered uncertainly.

"Thalia!" I exclaimed. "Hey, it's Percy."

"I thought you were spending time at some fancy summer camp," she stated skeptically.

"I am, but I just got some crazy news. You won't even believe me at first, I bet, but I swear it's all true."

"Uh huh."

"Well, I met this kid when I first got here. We do sword lessons together, and all of the other activities. He's my height, fourteen years old, platinum blonde hair that's really short, and bright sky blue eyes."

"You're losing me, Kelp Head."

I rolled my eyes. "He has a small little scar on his lip. He lives in California. He said his mom died and his sister ran away. His name is Jason Grace."

Thalia's gasp was audible through the phone. She was silent for a moment. "You're being serious? Like, one hundred percent, no lie, serious?"

"Definitely," I responded confidently.

"Can I talk to him?" she asked quietly.

I bit my lip. "I'm not sure. He still thinks his mom is dead and his sister abandoned him. I don't know how he would react."

"I get it. Maybe after this summer camp thing is over. But tell him I want to meet him. Oh, I can't even imagine how much he's grown."

I smiled. "I'll tell him, Thals. I've got to go, though. I'm technically not even supposed to be here, but Chiron is bending the rules for me."

"It's fine. Thanks, Percy."

"No problem. Bye, Thalia."

"Bye."

The phone clicked and the line went dead. I stared at the keys, contemplating whether or not to dial another familiar number, to hear another comforting friend.

I sucked in a breath and dialed Annabeth's phone number. I waited patiently for her to answer, and wasn't disappointed.

"Who is this?" she asked.

"Annabeth? It's me, Percy."

"Seaweed Brain?"

"Yeah," I laughed. "How is everything?"

The phone crackled a little. "It's great! It's beautiful here, and the weather is amazing. How - " The line cut temporarily, but Annabeth continued talking. "- with you?"

"How are things here? Pretty good. I like it here a lot, and I think you would too."

"That's nice."

I paused. "I miss you, Annabeth," I admitted.

"What?"

I shut my eyes. "I said I miss you."

"I-I'm sorry, Perce. I can't hear you. I've got to go. It's really late here, past midnight."

"Annabeth?"

"Bye, Percy. See you soon."

The line went dead, and I was left feeling like maybe I shouldn't have called in the first place. Yeah, it felt good in the moment, but as soon as she was gone, it...hurt.

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A lot just happened. Shall we recap? I say yes, so that's what going to happen lol. Well, numero uno, we met Jason Grace, and discovered that yes, he is in fact related to Thalia. How will that progress? You don't know, but I do ;) Next, Percy freaking nailed it at capture the flag, and lil' Lacy told him what's happening. Percy talked with Thalia, and he was left feeling empty by Annabeth.

Did you enjoy? You kind of got a glimpse of how Percy interacts with different people (boys similar in age, younger kids, his cousins, and an adult) If you did like it, leave a vote, and comment your favorite minor PJO/HOO character. There are sooo many, but I'd have to say Rachel. She's really independent and a pretty great role model.