Annabeth Chase and the Lightning Thief

Chapter 6 - I get rained on by a toilet

"Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say -"

"Because I know you," I interrupted. "You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me." He sounded defensive.

"No? I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How -"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

He looked embarrassed. I remembered I was too when my "faults" were pointed out to me. It wasn't nice being made out to look like a freak.

"What does that have to do with anything?" He asked.

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign," I told him. "The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hard wired for Ancient Greek. And the ADHD - you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle 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?"

He sounded hesitant.

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn'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. The stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."

He seemed to reel from the sudden realization. But he didn't get time to really absorb it because we were suddenly interrupted by my least favourite camper.

"Well! A newbie!" She yelled, strutting over with three of her siblings. They were all as ugly as you could get, but Clarisse got the prize of biggest and ugliest.

"Clarisse," I sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

I was seriously sick of her and I was having a hard enough time dealing with Percy to worry about her too.

"Sure, Miss Princess," she sneered. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas," I snapped. 'Go to the crows' in Greek. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," she said, but I could tell she wasn't sure. Brawn could only get you so far. It was brains that mattered. "Who's this little runt?" She's asked, turning towards Percy.

"Percy Jackson," I said, "meet Clarisse, daughter of Ares."

"Like . . . the war god?"

"You got a problem with that?" Clarisse snarled.

"No," he said. "It explains the bad smell."

I barely managed to contain my smile, but Clarisse didn't seem to find it funny at all.

"We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy," she told him maliciously.

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

Oh gods, not this again.

"Clarisse -" I began but she cut me off.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

I didn't want to but Percy looked like he was ready. He handed me his Minotaur horn and prepared himself to fight, but Clarisse merely caught him in a head-lock immediately. Then she began to drag him to the girls' bathroom.

I followed reluctantly as she and her friends got him in despite his struggles and pulled him towards the toilets. He looked so small between them all, weak compared to their solid forms.

"Like he's "Big Three" material," Clarisse sneered. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid-looking."

Her friends snickered. I felt sick as they pushed him head towards the toilet bowl. I couldn't watch so I covered my face with my hands, but ended up peeking through my fingers anyway.

Then I saw the toilets erupt.

Water exploded out of the one Percy was being forced to kneel over, hitting Clarisse square in the face. It was so powerful that it knocked her flying and stayed on her so she couldn't move. Her siblings went to help her, but then the other toilets erupted and they were bowled over too.

Even I was being soaked, the water spraying up against me, but unlike the Ares girls I wasn't being pushed around by the water pressure. All it did was wet me, not attack. They were squealing like an Aphrodite kid near a slug, which made being soaked worth toilet water so worth it.

The showers began to spray too and the combined power of the toilets and showers swept the Ares kids out of the door and away.

All of a sudden, all of the water shut off, leaving me and Percy the only ones left in the flooded bathroom. I was soaked but as I looked at Percy, I saw that he was completely dry. Not a single drop of water was on him. The floor around him was dry also.

He saw me staring at him in shock and frowned, looking down at himself. He seemed surprised to find himself dry also, despite being in the centre of the eruption of water.

"How did you . . ." I asked as he stood unsteadily.

"I don't know," he answered softly.

I suddenly realised that we were both just standing in the girls bathroom, so I hurried outside, Percy following me slowly. Clarisse and the other Ares girls were sprawled in the mud, surrounded by gawking campers. They were all soaked and smelt worse than normal.

"You are dead, new boy," Clarisse snarled, glaring at Percy in hatred and rage. "You are totally dead."

"You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth," he retorted.

Her siblings had to drag her away she was so furious. Some campers got kicked by her flailing feet. I just stared at Percy, considering that I might just be right after all. He could be the one.

"What?" He demanded, noticing that I was staring at him. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," I answered slowly, feeling new found respect for him, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."