love and war | p.j & a.c¹

1.02

"Yeah," I butt in, "That was weird... And they kept calling me a half blood, which feels slightly racist. And the Laistrygonian said that my name was Divinia, that's not my name."

Percy and Annabeth exchanged looks.

"Di," He said, his tone was so gentle that it freaked me out, "You ever hear those old stories about the Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena—"

"Yeah..."

"Well ... those gods are still alive. They kind of follow Western Civilization around, living in the strongest countries , so like now they're in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids with mortals. Kids called half-bloods."

"Excuse me?" I laughed, "You-you guys are insane..."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me, which i found strange because she barely knew me, "It's true. Percy and I are both half bloods and apparently you are as well. Those things you encountered in the gym, they were monsters."

Percy looked over at her, before turning back to me, "I know it's hard to grasp, but you're half god. My father is Poseidon, Annabeth's mother is Athena, and we go to a camp called Camp Half Blood. It's the only safe place for kids like us."

The more i thought about it, the more it made sense. Strange stuff always seemed to happen around me. There was that time some random guy tried to kidnap me, the time these angry geese with red eyes chased me all the way from my school to the park by my house (two miles away)

I didn't like it, but clearly we had to go so I just gave up and shrugged, "Fine, whatever."

It wasn't like my parents were going to miss me, I didn't have any. Well, apparently I had a godly parent, but whoever my mortal parent was died right after I was born. I've been in the foster care system my whole life. My last foster home.... lets just say I stay in the community home now. 

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "We don't have time for this. We'll talk in the taxi."

"A taxi all the way to camp?" Percy said. "You know how much money—"

"Trust me."

Percy hesitated. "What about Tyson?"

Annabeth hesitated, staring up at him. I tapped my foot against the sidewalk anxiously, i did not feel like getting arrested again.

"We can't just leave him," Percy decided. "He'll be in trouble, too."

"Yeah." Annabeth looked grim. "We definitely need to take him. Now come on."

Together the four of us sneaked through the side streets of downtown while a huge column of smoke billowed up behind us from my school gymnasium.

"Here." Annabeth stopped us on the corner of Thomas and Trimble. She fished around in her backpack. "I hope I have one left."

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

All around us, sirens wailed. I figured it wouldn't be long before more cops cruised by, looking for juvenile delinquent gym-bombers. No doubt Matt Sloan had given them a statement by now. He'd probably twisted the story around so that Tyson, Percy and I were the bloodthirsty cannibals.

"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth pulled out a gold coin, it looked strangely like a drachma. Actually it probably was, i should get used to that.

"Annabeth," Percy said, "New York taxi drivers won't take that."

"Stêthi," she shouted in a language i remarkably understood as Ancient Greek, "Ô hárma diabolês!"

She said: Stop, Chariot of Damnation!

That made me extremely nervous, damnation? Chariot? She threw her coin into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the drachma sank right through and disappeared.