Sea Green Eyes

Trials of Apollo - Part Two

"It took a long, a very long time, to get here," Cressida said. "But it is possible to be normal."

"Even when our fathers gave us their godly DNA. My father is Poseidon and hers is Dionysus," Percy answered. "What about your parents?"

Meg's legs went still. "Never knew them...much."

Percy hesitated. "Foster home? Stepparents?"

Cressida smacked his head.

"Ow!"

"You know the rule about parents," she scolded before turning to Meg with a small smile. "I apologise about him. The ADHD doesn't let him keep his thoughts to himself sometimes. How did you run into Apollo?"

Apollo recanted the story and both Cressida and Percy were biting their lips and gripping onto each other as they tried not to laugh at the clearly exaggerated parts about Apollo's brave defence against the bullies Cade and Mikey.

Oh, how Percy loved his girlfriend and her acting skills for teaching him when someone was acting.

Cressida was also amazing enough to knock Percy's feet off the coffee table as Sally came back into the room.

She set down a bowl of tortilla chips and a casserole dish filled with elaborate dip in multi-coloured strata, like sedimentary rock. "I'll be back with the sandwiches," she said. "But I had some leftover seven-layer dip."

"Yum." Percy dug in with a tortilla chip, feeding Cressida a bite before he took one and she reached for her own chip. "She's kinda famous for this, guys."

Sally ruffled his hair. "There's guacamole, sour cream, refried beans, salsa—"

"Seven layers?" Apollo looked up in wonder. "You knew seven is my sacred number? You invented this for me?"

Sally wiped her hands on her apron. "Well, actually, I can't take credit—"

"You are too modest!" Apollo tried some of the dip. It tasted almost as good as ambrosia nachos. "You will have immortal fame for this, Sally Jackson!"

Cressida laughed from her seat as she swallowed a chip. "That is one thing I will happily agree with a god about."

Sally smiled at them. "That's sweet. I'll be right back."

And when she came back, they were ploughing through turkey sandwiches, chips and dip, and banana smoothies. Meg ate like a chipmunk, shoving more food in her mouth than she could possibly chew, and Apollo was patting his full belly.

"Percy," he said, "your mom is awesome."

"I know, right?" He finished his smoothie. "So back to your story...you have to be Meg's servant now? You guys barely know each other."

"What I wouldn't give to have that happen to Hera," Cressida remarked and Percy chuckled as if he agreed before he reached his mouth forward to drink some of her smoothie.

"Barely is generous," Apollo said. "Nevertheless, yes. My fate is now linked with young McCaffrey."

"We are cooperating," Meg said. She seemed to savour that word.

Cressida was still slurping her smoothie as Percy played with her charm bracelet, specifically the charm that looked like a little silver disc etched with the picture of Coney Island.

"And this whole turning-into-a-mortal thing...you've done it twice before?"

Cressida gasped at Percy's question. "Oh my gods, did it finally happen? Did you, Perseus Jackson, actually pay attention to something taught in Greek History Class?"