I Meet Percy Jackson, the Boy from My Visions

**I Meet Percy Jackson, the Boy from My Visions** is the fifty-third chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on January 23rd, 2018.

## Chapter

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**Annabeth's POV**
After Jasmine left, I kept thinking about the gods, why they’re fighting, which I’ve pretty much figured that it was because something was stolen, but what? And does this boy, Percy Jackson, know anything about it?
I continued to spoon-feed him ambrosia. He sure drools and talks a lot in his sleep.
After a little while, I saw his eyes half-open. Now I had a chance.
“What will happen at the summer solstice?” I asked him.
He mumbled something, but I couldn’t hear him. It didn’t matter.
I looked around, making sure no one could hear me, then I turned back to Percy. “What’s going on? What was stolen? We’ve only got a few weeks!”
He mumbled something again, but then I heard someone knock on the door.
I quickly put more ambrosia in his mouth and he went unconscious again.
“Come in,” I called.
Grover opened the door and came in. “Hey. How is he?”
“Uh, the same,” I replied. “But he’ll wake up soon.”
“Good.”
I noticed he was holding a shoe box.
“What’s in that?” I asked.
“The Minotaur’s horn,” he replied. “I found it next to the tree on Half-Blood Hill. I think he may have broken it off somehow.”
“Ok. I’m all done feeding him ambrosia. I’m going to go now and leave you alone with him.”
“Ok. Thanks, Annabeth. And thank Jasmine for me too.”
“I will. Bye, Grover.”
I left the infirmary.

A couple days passed before Percy became fully conscious.
When he was, Jasmine and I were leaning on the porch rail of the Big House, discussing some things, Toothless sitting on the ground in front of us, and Mr. D and Chiron were playing pinochle on a table nearby.
Jasmine hated being around Mr. D, we all do, but we have to tolerate him and he had to do the same with us. But she doesn’t if he does something that she doesn’t like, which is most of the time. So far today, nothing yet.
Grover came around the porch and Percy Jackson was with him, fully awake now. He looked at all of us, but stopped when he noticed Chiron, who was currently in wheelchair form and his back was to him.
“Mr. Brunner!” he cried.
Jasmine frowned. “Mr. Brunner?”
“That’s Chiron’s undercover name as a teacher at his school,” I whispered back.
“Oh, right.”
Chiron turned and smiled at Percy. “Uh, good, Percy. Now we have four for pinochle.”
Jasmine and I didn’t want to play, though Jasmine likes to beat Mr. D, but not today, I guess.
Chiron offered Percy a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at him with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. “Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don’t expect me to be glad to see you.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Asshole.”
“Uh, thanks,” Percy said to Mr. D, scooting a little farther away from him.
“He’s smart,” Jasmine whispered to me.
I smiled a little bit.
“Annabeth? Jasmine?” Chiron called.
We came forward and he introduced us.
“These young ladies nursed you back to health, Percy,” Chiron said.
Jasmine gave him a friendly smile. “Hello, Percy. My name’s Jasmine.”
He gave a small smile back. “Hi.” Then he looked at me.
It’s always best to make eye-contact, especially with a new demigod, but I’m not as friendly as Jasmine is. I stared into his eyes, which this time, was probably a mistake.
His eyes were sea-green. A familiar sea-green, but I couldn’t remember where I’ve seen them before. Until, a second later, when my head started to really hurt this time, and I clutched it.
Then the scene changed.
I saw myself with Percy, but kind of in a slideshow of scenes.
We were having what looked like a meaningful talk full of concern; I was swimming toward an island, but he was trying to stop me and pull me back, and I kicked and punched him and he pulled me underwater; we were standing together, talking. We appeared to be older, then I, for some reason, punched him in the stomach, then we were dancing together, rather a little awkwardly; we were hiding behind a big cauldron and I was looking at him with concern, then I kissed him, which really surprised me; I was lying on a couch, looking pale, and he was kneeling next to me and holding my hand.
He was even older, so was I. I was falling down a cliff, into something dark that I couldn’t even see the bottom. Percy grabbed hold of my hand, but I slipped over the side and he fell with me. He managed to grab a ledge about fifteen feet below the top of the cliff. He was holding on with one hand, and gripping me with the other. But I knew that I was too far to be saved.
“Percy, let me go,” I croaked. “You can’t pull me up.”
He looked exhausted, and he knew it was hopeless, but he didn’t let me go.
“Never,” he said. “We’re staying together. You’re not getting away from me. Never again.”
I didn’t really understand what he meant by again, but I could tell that the image of myself did.
“As long as we’re together,” I said.
Then Percy let go of the ledge, and we both, holding hands, fell into the mysterious darkness below.
My vision ended and I collapsed on the porch and became unconscious.

When I woke up, breathing hard, I learned that I wasn’t exactly unconscious.
“Annabeth!” Jasmine called. “Oh, thank God you’re alive.”
She was holding me and crying.
“Alive?” I asked.
“Your heart stopped for two whole minutes,” Jasmine replied. “I had to shock it back to beat again.”
Well, that explains why my chest feels like it was burning, but I still couldn’t believe it.
“I was dead?” I asked.
Jasmine nodded and started crying again and hugged me.
“You’re fine now,” Grover said
“Yes,” Chiron agreed grimly. “But are you all right, my dear?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
To prove it, I stood back up, all on my own, pushing Jasmine away first, even though she did just save my life. And, yes, she was hurt by that, but I had to prove something.
“What did you see?” Jasmine asked.
She knew I had a vision, but what I saw terrified me. But I couldn’t show it, of course.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’m fine now, like Grover said.”
“Are you sure?” Jasmine asked.
“Yes, Jasmine.”
We made eye-contact and she could tell I was hiding something, plus her powers can tell her whether I’m lying or not, but she let it go. For now. “Ok.”
“If you truly feel ok, Annabeth, my dear,” Chiron said. “Why don’t you and Jasmine go check on Percy’s bunk? We’ll be putting him in cabin eleven for now.”
“Of course you are,” Jasmine muttered.
I glared at her, then turned back to Chiron. “Sure, Chiron.”
I glanced at the shoe box with the Minotaur’s horn inside of it in Percy’s hands, then looked at him again.
This time, no vision, but he did look at me with a little concern.
“You drool when you sleep,” I told him.
Then I sprinted off down the lawn. Jasmine and Toothless followed.
I slowed to a walking pace and Jasmine did too, beside me.
“Really?” she asked. “‘You drool when you sleep’?”
“He does,” I replied.
“Still. What was the point of saying that?”
“I felt like I needed to say something to him.”
“And you chose to say that?”
“Shut up, Jasmine.”
“Fine. But what did you see in your vision? And what caused you to have it in the first place?”
Thinking about that vision made me hesitate. I’ve never been afraid to tell Jasmine my visions before, but now I was, especially since I knew what she was going to think about it, which will annoy me.
But that vision did make me realize something.
“He’s the one, Jasmine,” I said.
“The one of what?” she asked.
“The one that I see in every one of my visions.”
“That’s him?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
She looked behind us for a second, then back at me. “You never said he was cute.”
I glared at her. “Really, Jasmine?”
“What? He is. And so are most of the guys here, don’t you think so?”
“I guess.”
“Yeah, and you only know that one guy is cute.”
I rolled my eyes. “You like Luke, so why do you keep complaining about me having a crush on him all the time?”
“I like him as my uncle, not as a crush. He’s too old for either of us, and he’s dating my aunt.”
“Who’s his sister.”
“Not biologically. Besides, there are other guys that are more age appropriate for you, and that don’t call you his little girl.”
“Which we both hate. But are you referring to Percy?”
“Well, you just called him ‘the one.’”
“From my visions.”
“That’s not what I think when you said that.”
“Then what do you think?”
“What I think every time you have a vision of him is that he’s the *one* for you.”
It took me a moment to realize what she meant and I stopped in my tracks. “What? I just met him.”
“And you should give him a chance,” Jasmine said.
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Because you like Luke.”
“Yes. No one else. End of discussion.”
I continued on. Jasmine followed.
“What did you see in your vision?” she asked.
I pursed my lips. “It doesn’t matter.”
“If it doesn’t matter, then tell me. Or, better yet, show me.”
“No!” I said that louder than I meant to.
“That was a strong ‘no’, which means that you’re hiding something. What did you see in your vision?”
“It doesn’t matter, Jasmine. Let it go.”
“Not until you tell me. What were you and Percy doing in the vision?”
“Jasmine, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care about him at all, and never will. You just called him cute, so if you want to date him, you can. I don’t care.”
“I’m already interested in someone else, but he’s not meant to be mine anyway.”
“And he’s meant to be mine?”
“Yes! There’s a reason you’ve been having all those visions of him since you were seven, and I think that’s it.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Oh, yes, we will. And, hey, at least now you know his name.”
“Oh, yeah, because I’ve been dying to know his name.”
“I would be.”
“Well, I’m not you.”
“Clearly.”
“Jasmine, it doesn’t matter. So will you please let it go?”
“Fine. For now.”
I sighed. This was going to be a very long day.
Unfortunately, based on the vision I had, I was afraid she might be right. But why was he so important?
We reached cabin eleven and were waiting.
“I still think he knows something about what was stolen from the gods,” I said.
“Of course you do,” Jasmine replied.
“Something bad is going to happen on the summer solstice, Jasmine.”
“Ok. But I don’t care about the gods. They’re all a bunch of assholes, based on the stories I’ve read about them, and the experience I’ve had with one of them.”
“Don’t you care about what I care about?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I care about the gods.”
“And I don’t. But if you want to find out what’s going on with them, then fine, I’ll help you.”
“Thank you. Now, do you think you can ask your powers what’s going on since they supposedly know everything?”
“I have, and they just tell me that we’ll find out soon.”
“Not soon enough.”
“Clearly not.”
We waited in front of cabin eleven.
I decided to read one of my architectural books that I brought with me while Jasmine played fetch with Toothless.
Chiron brought Percy over a few minutes later.
When they reached us, I looked Percy over critically, wondering if he did or didn’t know something wrong with the gods. Jasmine, on the other hand, greeted him with a friendly smile. Toothless did too, but it was weird, especially since he had his teeth retracted at the moment. Percy looked at him oddly, then turned back toward us.
“Annabeth, Jasmine,” Chiron said. “I have masters’ archery class at noon. Would you two take Percy from here?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“Of course,” Jasmine said.
“Cabin eleven,” Chiron told Percy, gesturing toward the doorway. “Make yourself at home.”
Considering how crowded it was in the cabin, I doubt he could make himself at home.
“Well, then,” Chiron said. “Good luck, Percy. I’ll see you at dinner.”
He galloped away toward the archery range.
“Come on, Percy,” Jasmine said.
He stood in the doorway, us standing on either side of him.
Every one of the campers inside were staring at him, sizing him up. But he didn’t go in.
“Well?” I prompted. “Go on.”
He took a step forward and tripped going in the door, making a total fool of himself.
Some of the campers snickered, but none of them said anything. But that didn’t keep Jasmine from still glaring at them.
“Are you ok?” she asked Percy.
“Yeah,” He replied.
“Percy Jackson,” I announced. “Meet cabin eleven.”
“Regular or undetermined?” Delilah asked.
“Undetermined,” Jasmine and I said at the same time.
Everybody groaned, and we understood why.
Luke came forward and I couldn’t help but stare at him in awe.
“Now, now, campers,” he said. “That’s what we’re here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there.”
He pointed to a tiny section on the floor.
“This is Luke,” I said, my voice sounding a little high-pitched, and I’m pretty sure I was blushing, because I always am when I’m around him.
I felt a sharp pain on my forearm, and I knew that Jasmine just poked me with fire to snap me out of it, like she always does.
“Ow,” I said, then glared at her.
She just smiled and laughed at me.
Percy was standing between us, and he looked at me with an eyebrow raised.
I hardened my expression again. “He’s your counselor for now.”
“For now?” he asked.
“You’re undetermined,” Luke explained patiently. “They don’t know what cabin to put you in, so you’re here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers.”
Percy looked at the tiny section Luke gave him. Then around at the campers’ faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing him as if they were waiting for a chance to pick his pockets, which they probably were.
“How long will I be here?” he asked.
“Good question,” Luke said. “Until you’re determined.”
“How long will that take?”
The campers laughed.
Jasmine glared at them all. “Oh, yeah, because you guys didn’t ask that exact same damn question when *you* first came to camp.”
Everyone stopped laughing.
She had a point, but none of them liked it, neither did I. Jasmine’s always that defensive of new demigods, but I’m not.
“Come on,” I told Percy. “I’ll show you the volleyball court.”
“I’ve already seen it,” he said.
“Come on. Jasmine, you stay here.”
“What?” she asked, surprised. “Why?”
“Because I know what you’re going to say.”
“And I know what *you’re* going to say to him, and I’m not letting you.”
She and I had a glaring battle, but she wasn’t going to give in.
Luckily, Luke stepped in for me.
“Let’s let Annabeth take a walk with Percy,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I’ll hold her back.”
“But, Luke,” Jasmine protested.
“Thank you,” I told him. “Come on, Percy.”
I grabbed his wrist and dragged him outside, leaving Jasmine with her arms crossed and glaring at me.
“Jackson, you have to do better than that,” I said to Percy when we were a few feet away.
“What?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes and mumbled under my breath. “I can’t believe I thought you were the one.”
“Uh, no offense, but can I trade you for that other girl, Jasmine? She’s nicer than you.”
“Being nice isn’t going to help you survive here.”
“What’s your problem? All I know is, I kill some bull guy—”
“Don’t talk like that!” I told him. “You know how many kids at this camp wish they had your chance?”
“To get killed?”
“To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?”
He shook his head. “Look, if the thing I fought really was *the* Minotaur, the same in the stories . . .”
“Yes.”
“Then there’s only one.”
“Yes.”
“And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So . . .”
“Monsters don’t die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don’t die.”
“Oh, thanks. That clears it up.”
“They don’t have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you’re lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form.”
“You mean if I killed one accidentally, with a sword—”
I knew who he was referring to.
“The Fur . . . I mean, your math teacher,” I said. “That’s right. She’s still out there. You just made her very very mad.”
“How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?” Percy asked.
“You talk in your sleep.”
“You almost called her something. A Fury? They’re Hades’ torturers, right?”
I hesitated and glanced at the ground. “You shouldn’t call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all.”
“Look, is there anything we *can* say without it thundering? Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of bunks right over there.”
He pointed to the first few cabins, and I hesitated even more. “You don’t just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your godly parents are. Or . . . godly parent.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to get it.
“My mom is Sally Jackson,” he said. “She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to.”
“I’m sorry about your mom, Percy,” I said. “But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about your other parent. Your dad.”
“He’s dead. I never knew him.”
I sighed. Here we go again. This is why I hate dealing with new demigods.
“Your father’s not dead, Percy,” I said.
“How can you say that?” he asked. “You knew him?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then how can you say—”
“Because I know *you*. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of us.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“No?” I raised an eyebrow. “I bet you moved around from school to school. I beat you were kicked out of a lot of them.”
“How—”
“Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too.”
Percy looked astonished. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Taken together, it’s almost a sure sign,” I replied. “The letters float off the page when you read, right? That’s because your mind is hardwired for Ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you’re impulsive, can’t sit still in the classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight they’d keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that’s because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal’s. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don’t want you seeing them for what they are.”
“You sound like . . . you went through the same thing?”
“Most of the kids here did. If you weren’t like us, you wouldn’t have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar.”
“Ambrosia and nectar?”
“The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff could’ve killed a normal kid. It would’ve turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you’d be dead. You’re a half-blood.”
I let him sink that all in.
But before I could prepare myself for more questions, a husky voice yelled, “Well! A newbie!”
I looked over and saw Clarisse and three of her sisters sauntering toward us.
Great.
“Clarisse,” I sighed. “Why don’t you go polish your spear or something?”
“Sure, Miss Princess,” she replied. “So I can run you through with it Friday night.”
“*Erre es korakas!* You don’t stand a chance.”
“We’ll pulverize you,” she replied, but her eye twitched, probably because she wasn’t so sure she could deliver that threat. “Who’s this little runt?”
“Percy Jackson,” I said. “Meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares.”
He blinked. “Like . . . the war god?”
Clarisse sneered. “You gotta problem with that?”
“No,” he said quickly. “It explains the bad smell.”
I stifled a smile.
Clarisse growled. “We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.”
“Percy,” he corrected.
“Whatever. Come on. I’ll show you.”
Uh-oh.
“Clarisse—” I tried to say.
“Stay out of it, wise girl.”
I was pained. Jasmine was going to kill me if I stayed out of it, but I did.
Percy handed me his minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before he knew it, Clarisse had him by the neck and was dragging him toward the girls bathroom.
I had to follow.
Percy was kicking and punching, but it was no use. Clarisse’s sisters were all laughing.
“Like he’s ‘Big Three’ material,” Clarisse said as she pushed him toward the toilet. “Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking.”
Her sisters snickered.
I stood in the corner, watching through my fingers.
Clarisse bent him over on his knees and started pushing his head toward the toilet bowl. He strained to keep his head up.
Then something weird happened.
I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse loosened her grip on Percy’s hair.
Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over Percy’s head.
She screamed and Percy was sprawled on the floor.
The water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt.
The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.
She struggled, gasping, and her sisters started coming toward her.
But then the toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back.
The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the daughters of Ares right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.
As soon as they were out the door, the water shut off as quickly as it had started.
The entire bathroom was flooded, and I was soaking wet.
I stared at Percy in shock.
He was sitting on the floor, completely dry, and he looked just as surprised as I was.
He stood up, his legs shaky.
“How did you . . .” I said.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
He walked to the door.
Outside, Clarisse and her sisters were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk.
Clarisse’s hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage.
She gave Percy a look of absolute hatred. “You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead.”
Of course, Percy had to respond. “You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth.”
I probably would’ve laughed if I wasn’t in so much shock.
Clarisse’s sisters had to hold her back. They dragged her toward their cabin, cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.
I stared at Percy again, bewildered, and I had an idea.
“What?” he demanded. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking,” I said, “that I want you on my team for capture the flag.”

Word of the bathroom incident spread quickly, as I knew it would.
Wherever Percy and I went, campers pointed at him and murmured something about toilet water.
I was still pretty wet.
I showed him a few more places: the metal shop, the arts-and-crafts room, and the climbing wall.
Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.
“I’ve got training to do,” I said flatly. “Dinner’s at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall.”
“Annabeth,” he said. “I’m sorry about the toilets.”
“Whatever.”
“It wasn’t my fault.”
I looked at him skeptically, because I knew it was his fault. He knew it too, he just didn’t know how he caused that to happen.
“You need to talk to the Oracle,” I said.
“Who?” he asked.
“Not who. What. The Oracle. I’ll ask Chiron.”
He stared into the lake.
Two naiads were sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier about twenty feet below. They smiled and waved at him.
He waved back.
“Don’t encourage them,” I warned. “Naiads are terrible flirts.”
“Naiads,” he repeated. “That’s it. I want to go home now.”
I frowned. “Don’t you get it, Percy? You *are* home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us.”
“You mean mentally disturbed kids?”
“I mean *not human*. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human.”
“Half-human and half-what?”
“I think you know.”
He thought about it for a moment.
“God,” he said. “Half-god.”
I nodded. “Your father isn’t dead, Percy. He’s one of the Olympians.”
“That’s . . . crazy.”
“Is it? What’s the most common thing the gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they’ve changed their habits in the last few millennia?”
“But those are just—” he stopped himself. “But if all kids here are half-gods—”
“Demigods,” I corrected. “That’s the official term. Or half-bloods.”
“Then who’s your dad?”
My hands tightened on the pier railing. He had to ask that question.
“My dad is a professor,” I said. “I haven’t seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history.”
“He’s human.”
“What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?”
“Who’s your mom, then?”
“Cabin six.”
“Meaning?”
I straightened. “Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle.”
“And my dad?”
“Undetermined, like I told you before. Nobody knows.”
“Except my mother. She knew.”
“Maybe not, Percy. Gods don’t always reveal their identities.”
“My dad would have. He loved her.”
I kind of doubted that, but I couldn’t say that to him.
“Maybe your right,” I said. “Maybe he’ll send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.”
“You mean sometimes it doesn’t?” Percy asked.
I ran my palm along the rail. “The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don’t always . . . Well, sometimes they don’t care about us, Percy. They ignore us.”
“So I’m stuck here? That’s it? For the rest of my life?”
“It depends. Some campers only stay the summer. If you’re a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you’re probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it’s too dangerous to leave. We’re year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They came to challenge us. Most of the time, they’ll ignore us until we’re old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you’d know them. Some don’t even realize they’re demigods. But very, very few are like that.”
“So monsters can’t get in here?”
I shook my head. “Not unless they’re intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by someone on the inside.”
“Why would anybody want to summon a monster?”
“Practical fights. Practical jokes.”
“Practical jokes?”
“The point is, the boundaries are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm.”
“So . . . you’re a year-rounder?”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“I’ve been here since I was seven. Jasmine’s parents adopted me into their family when I was almost eight and I’ve been living with them ever since. We spend the whole summer here, and during the school year, since they have powers that can do almost anything, like teleportation, we come and visit every weekend.”
I pulled my leather necklace out from underneath the collar of my T-shirt with my five clay beads and my dad’s college ring strung on it to show Percy.
“Every August, on the last day of the summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I’ve been here longer than most of the counselors, and they’re all in college.”
“Why did you come so young?” he asked.
I twisted my dad’s ring on my necklace. “None of your business.”
“Oh.” He got the message and left the subject alone. “So . . . I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?”
“It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D’s or Chiron’s permission. But they wouldn’t give permission until the end of the summer session unless . . .”
“Unless?”
“You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time . . .” I faltered, remembering how bad it was and how I almost died.
“Back in the sick room,” Percy said, “when you were feeding me that stuff—”
“Ambrosia,” I said.
“Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice.”
I tensed. “So you *do* know something?”
“Well . . . no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn’t have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?”
I clenched my fists. “I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won’t tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so *normal*.”
“You’ve been to Olympus?”
“Some of us year-rounders—Luke, Jasmine, and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That’s when the gods have their big annual council.”
“But . . . how did you get there?”
“The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor.” I looked at him like it was obvious. “You *are* a New Yorker, right?”
“Oh, sure,” he replied.
“Right after we visited,” I continued, “the weather got weird, as if the gods started fighting. A couple of times since, I’ve overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn’t returned by summer solstice, there’s going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping . . . I mean—Athena can get along with just about anybody except, except for Ares. And of course she’s got that rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something.”
He shook his head.
Damn.
“I’ve got to get a quest,” I muttered to myself. “I’m *not* too young. If they would just tell me the problem . . .”
I heard Percy’s stomach growl. I bet he was hungry.
“Go on,” I told him. “I’ll catch you later.”
He nodded and walked off.
I stayed on the pier an extra few minutes, tracing my finger across the rail.
I thought about going and finding Jasmine, but she’s probably heard what happened at the girls’ bathroom by now and is mad at me for letting it even get to the bathroom.
I didn’t want to hear it from her, but I was going to eventually, so I might as well as get it over with.
I left the pier to go find Jasmine.

And so it begins. Yay! Now it's going to get interesting, and I can't wait.
So here's a little quiz for you guys: You read Annabeth's vision, right? Tell me in what book every one of those visions happened in.
Also, has anybody watched the series Pretty Little Liars? I just finished it last night, and I have to say, that's some crazy shit, lol.
Please review **here**.

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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Annabeth Chase
* Jasmine Saturday
* Percy Jackson

### Minor Characters

* Chiron
* Grover Underwood
* Dionysus
* Luke Castellan
* Clarisse