Heroes of Olympus: The Future of the Heroes

Chapter 23: Piper

Soon when Annabeth fell to the ground laughing he began to stir. We panicked and started shoving each other out the door.

"Hurry up!" I hiss-whispered when Frank was too slow.

We bounded down the stairs and sat down so hastily Percy fell out of his chair.

We were trying to poker face our laughs but we didn't do a good job because when Jason came down he almost guessed.

"Morning guys... What's so funny?" He rubbed his head.

"Morning."

"Nothing." Percy and Annabeth said at the same time.

Percy was holding the camera under the table when he sat back down and suddenly he dropped it and a video started to play on full volume.

"Why is the sky blue?" Jason's voice came from under the table, muffled from when Percy kicked it under the chair.

"What was that?" Jason narrowed his eyes.

"Frank! It was Frank!" I exclaimed, pointing at Hazel instead of Frank, who was across the table.

"What's going on?" He inched closer to Percy, who returned his glare but he was too busy trying not to laugh.

"Nothing!" He held his hands up in surrender.

"Thats's it." He lunged at Percy and the two cousins fell to the ground, Percy cracking up and Jason with a devious lookin his eyes.

The rest of us gawked at them while Percy struggled to get out from under Jason's grasp.

"The camera!" Percy choked. "Get the camera!"

I dove under the chair and grabbed the camera before Jason could process Percy's words.

Jason glared at me. "Pipes, give me the camera."

I shook my head. Jason was so much bigger and stronger than me, he would take me down in an instant. I looked at Annabeth.

"Catch!" I screamed and threw it to her with surprising accuracy.

I could've thrown it to Frank or Hazel, but Annabeth was smart and would know the smart thing to do with it.

She put it down her shirt.

"You want it?" Annabeth teased.

"Don't you even think about getting it," Percy hissed at Jason, which caused all of us to have fits of awkward laughter.

"Don't worry," Jason assured him.

"So much for first thing in the morning we'll talk." Percy said, still on the floor, spread out like a starfish.

We all sat down. "Coming up?" Hazel looked down at him.

"Nope." He said. "I'm pretty comfy."

I rolled my eyes in unison with everyone at the table. "Whatever."

"Ok," Jason pulled the prophecy from his pocket. "What was the last line we discussed?"

"Um... the son of the sea makes the choice he dreads, in order to save the life of the forge." Annabeth said, and we all looked at Percy, who groaned and rolled over onto his stomach and covered his face.

"Percy, we need to talk about this." Annabeth insisted, and I looked at her, realizing that she still had the camera in her bra.

"No." He answered, not looking up.

Annabeth got down on the ground next to him and put her hand on his Achilles point. "Are you sure?"

"Yep."