Tidal Wave (Luke Castellan)

The Friend

 It was the last day of the school semester. I'd survived my first year of high school and Percy had survived a whole year without blowing up a school. There were plenty of things to celebrate. The only bad part was that Sally hadn't told Percy that we weren't leaving for camp tomorrow. He'd gone into my room a few times within the past few days, estatically talking about all the things he was excited for. I had to just sit and listen with a fake smile on my face. Sally had asked me not to tell Percy about camp so I just had to keep my mouth shut.

"...I got a message from Chiron last night," I heard Sally saying as I entered the kitchen in the morning.

"What did he say?" Percy asked, his voice showing signs of distress.

I took a seat next to him as she started explaining, "He thinks... it might not be safe for you two to come to camp just yet. We might have to postpone your arrival."

"Did it happen?" I asked quietly.

She nodded, "A few days ago."

"What happened? How would camp not be safe? I thought it was the only place that was safe for people like us. And how come Cass knew about this and not me?" Percy demanded.

"I was waiting to explain this all to you this afternoon. There's not enough time before school to do it now. I don't know how to explain it all yet. I don't know if even Chiron could explain it actually. A lot has happened in a very quick amount of time."

"So it was something they hadn't prepared for. I guess it makes sense considering they were given a warning of danger but not what exactly they should've expected," I concluded, "What was done to camp?"

"Like I said, I can't explain it now. You two should head off for school. Tyson will be waiting."

"But-" Percy tried.

"After school," Sally's tone made the two of us clamp our mouths closed. Her decision was final. Percy and I exchanged a look before grabbing our bookbags and making our way to the door.

Percy stopped just before we left, "Mom, do you think the problem at camp has anything to do with my dream about Grover?"

I shot him a questioning glance while she said, "We'll talk this afternoon."

After the door shut behind us, I looked at my younger brother, "What's this about Grover?"

"You tell me how you knew camp was in danger first," he challenged.

"Trust me, that's not an answer you want to hear. If it happens to come up when we talk to your mom later, I'll tell you," I said, pulling my hat down further over my head despite the summer heat, "But just know someone told me that camp would be in trouble this summer so I passed the message onto Chiron. Now what's going on with Grover?"

I could tell he wanted to argue but decided that answers eventually were better than no answers at all, "I don't exactly know. I think he might be in trouble though. I had a vision of him running away from something but I don't know what."

"I suppose that you didn't have enough time to tell Chiron this, right?" I asked.

"No, I-" he cut himself off before we got to Tyson, Percy's only friend at school. He didn't know about our world and it was better we didn't continue this conversation around him. This could wait until the end of school considering it was only a vision at this point.

Tyson was a very tall kid with peanut butter always stuck in his teeth. Percy had once told me that he could never look Tyson in the eye since that would mean looking past his teeth. I don't think I'd ever seen Tyson's eyes for that very same reason. He was very sweet but also very sensitive. I couldn't crack my usual jokes around him because I was always afraid I was going to make him cry. He had the speech of a much younger person too.