an ego thing, pjo

THREE

It was safe to say that Percy Jackson was not having a very good time of things. First a pegasus crash landed on the roof of his stepdad's car, then he almost got filleted by Luke (Kronos, not Luke - it was hard to remember that sometimes), then Charlie died, he had a less than joyous visit with his dad and, uh, immortal stepfamily, and then not only did he have to return to camp as a total loser, but he had a feeling that the prophecy he had to wait to read for the war council was going to totally suck.

He wasn't exactly sure what to expect when he finally walked back down to the rec room (also known as the war council room), but it certainly wasn't anything that awaited him. Clarisse stood angry and tall, still in her battle gear with maimer strapped to her back, hollering as loud as she possibly could at the newest Apollo Cabin head counselor. In return, Michael Yew (and all four feet and six inches of him), was standing as tall as he possibly could and shouting right back.

"It's our loot! If you don't like it, you can kiss my quiver!"

The Jackson boy let his eyes scan over the rest of the demigods in the room after that pleasant exclamation. Most of them were trying not to laugh - Pollux, Katie Gardner, Connor and Travis Stoll, even poor Jake Mason who had hastily been appointed the new Hephaestus head counselor not even an hour after they learned of Charlie's death. But then he spotted Silena, a vacant look on her face and a cold cup of hot chocolate sitting in front of her. She was sat beside Clarisse, not even seeming to register the yelling in the room.

Percy couldn't believe she was even there. He couldn't believe they were standing there fighting in front of her when Charlie had just died.

"Stop it!" Percy's voice cut through the yelling, "What are you guys doing?" Also see: what the hell is going on?

"Don't ask."

His head whipped in the direction of the familiar voice, finding Harper standing in the threshold on the opposite side of the room. She looked bored - or exasperated, he couldn't be sure - as she shook her head at him, and Percy couldn't help but wince when he realized that while he and Annabeth had ventured up to meet the Oracle, the Aphrodite girl had been stuck down in the rec room with everyone else to wait. Or to fight, it seemed. Either way, it was pretty rotten luck.

Thought it was usually that way with the Castellan girl, he noticed. No matter how long Harper had been at camp (not even a year less than Annabeth or Luke), she never quite seemed to be able to break into the real inner circle. A senior counselor now, sure. One of the two people they turned to for insight on Luke, of course. But to Chiron (to Luke), Harper was never going to be Annabeth, and she wasn't going to be Percy, either.

When all of a sudden she seemed to be joining quests and sitting in on meetings, Percy thought the girl would be ecstatic - he certainly was. She was one of his best friends, one of the smartest people Percy had ever known, and there were very few other people he really trusted the way he trusted Harper Castellan.

Harper did everything without complaint, did it all with a smile. It wasn't until she stormed out of a particularly... trying meeting in the council room that Harper Castellan let Percy Jackson in on the turbulence of her mind. "They don't want my help, they just want to keep an eye on me, make sure I'm not running off to tell Luke everything we're planning."

Percy hadn't stopped to think about any of it before, but suddenly it was the only thing on his mind. The stares, the whispers... it didn't seem to matter how much the son of Poseidon trusted the girl, a good number of demigods were wary of her allegiances. Chiron was wary (at least he used to be). Everyone always said to keep your friends close and your enemies closer - for more than just a passing moment in time, Camp Half-Blood was watching Harper to make sure she wasn't an enemy.