Abracadabra | Percy Jackson

1.7

The daughter of Athena raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."

She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer. "Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.

"You should've been more specific. How do we know that we'll even talk to Chiron?" Atalanta scolded.

"As long as we talk to someone at camp we should be fine." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

The mist then showed strawberry fields, the sound of Long Island and the porch of the Big House.

Atalanta looked up to see Luke by the railing holding his bronze sword. He looked lost in thought and had a serious look on his face.

"Luke!" Percy called.

Luke turned towards the iris message with his eyes wide. It truly did look like he was standing right in front of them.

"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Attie! Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"

"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought-Chiron-I mean-"

Atalanta rolled her eyes at the girl. Luke was 19 and she was 12. It would never work out and if Luke truly reciprocated her feelings, Atalanta seriously misjudged his character.

"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"

"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"

Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop.

As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.

"Chiron had to-what's that noise?" Luke yelled.

"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Grover, come on!

"What?" Grover said. "But-"

"Give Percy and Attie the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.

Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed Percy the spray gun and followed Annabeth.

Percy readjusted the hose so he could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.

"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how-probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."

"Why would they back Zeus?" Atalanta asked with a scowl on her face.

"They said something about something that Poseidon did, but we all know it's because of the stupid rivalry between Athena and Poseidon." Luke answered.

In the next stall, they heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.

"So what's your status?" Luke asked. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."

Percy seemed to talk forever. He told Luke everything. It was weird since he barely knew him, but Atalanta just brushed it off and started playing with the stone around her.