Mortals: Meet... 2

Jasper Valentine's Day - Henry Sarkov

Whatever you do in life, try to never ever owe someone a favor!

At first, I thought I wouldn't have anything to worry about. It would probably something silly, like taking care of the children or using your boat to go scuba diving, I told myself. Never this.

Let me back up for a second. Tell the beginning of the story.

A few months ago, around September, I went out with one of my friends. I'm sure you know him, Percy Jackson. Famous biologist? Sea lover? Father of three kids? Married with Annabeth Chase? I'm sure you know who he is by now. Anyway, I had invited Percy (and, by extension, Annabeth) to a trip inside my modest ship. Nothing big like a yacht, but it wasn't a fisherman's boat either. More like a sailing boat. I was taking my then-girlfriend, Natasha, who wouldn't stop talking about how much she liked the sea and stuff.

My invitation to Percy and Annabeth was to have company and not a one-sided conversation about the sea. The plan kind of backfired when Natasha saw that Percy was going with us. She wanted to monopolized Percy in every sense of the word (even with Annabeth standing right next to him!), only to confess to him that the sea made her sick and that it was an excuse for meeting him because she knew I was his friend.

Needless to say, I owed Percy for discovering the fraud, even when I didn't ask him. Percy, on the other hand, felt terrible about it and wanted to compensate me for the awful night! That's the kind of guy Percy is. I managed to convinced him that I was the one owing a favor and that, he didn't hesitated to tell me.

Which takes us to a couple of days before today:

"Henry? I need a favor to ask..." I immediately noticed that he was kind of embarrassed or desperate.

"Sure man, you tell me..." I had told him.

I should had listened first and saying 'sure' later!

What Percy put me up to was to be the captain of my own boat for a couple of friends celebrating Valentine's Day. Needless to say, I cursed Percy right afterwards. I was required to use an uniform! Those things itch! The bad part of all this is that I didn't know these friends of Percy (not that he can't have more friends or anything...), so I'd be waiting outside the deck until someone would approach me.

It's going to be a long Sunday...

~oOo~

I arrived early to the pier, around 3pm, trying to prepare everything for my 'favor'. It wasn't what I was expecting, but that didn't mean I was going to disappoint Percy! Several couples walked around the pier, climbing into different boat and sailing onto the sea. One boat left with several couples, as they were organizing a party. They looked young, so I guess that was fit for them.

Suddenly, a group (more like a crew) of several boys and girls, dressed like penguins (not costumes, suits) and carrying several bags approached me.

"Henry Sarkov?" I nodded at the guy that spoke to me "We were hired by Mr. Grace for tonight..." But, of course... I stopped the torrent of curses coming out of my mouth and allowed them to climb in. When they were aboard, I saw that among them was a chef, a DJ, waiters and some stylers. I rolled my eyes at all the commotion, but kept quiet. It wasn't my circus afterall.

"Does anyone know when Mr. and Mrs. Grace are coming?!" I heard one of the waiters to ask the rest.

"Less than thirty minutes!" Was the reply that had everyone working faster. One of them approached me, concentrate it.