Nina's Destiny

Curse

Percy and I went to the arena to see Mrs. O'Leary, the only friendly hellhound. We played fetch with her. We took the hellhound for a walk. She bounded far ahead of us. When we finally tracked her down, she was in the clearing where the Council of Cloven Elders had put Grover on trial. It looked downright dead. The grass was yellow and the thrones made of flowers had lost all their leaves. In the middle of the clearing stood, Juniper the wood nymph, Nico, and the satyr I recognized as Leneus. Mrs. O'Leary was sniffing Juniper. Juniper yelped and said, "Oh no, you mutt, I know what dogs do to trees like me!"

I'll admit, that sounded pretty funny. "I'll walk the dog," Nico offered. He whistled and Mrs. O'Leary followed him happily. Juniper and Leneus started to argue about Grover. He had disappeared. Why didn't anyone tell me? Percy yelled at Leneus a bit about leading the satyrs into battle instead of letting Grover do all the work. Wow, I never pictured sweet, little, innocent Grover as a war leader. Juniper and Leneus left as Mrs. O'Leary returned with Nico.

"Have you decided yet," my baby cousin asked.

"What do we need to do first?" I grinned.

"First, we need to ask your mom for permission." Percy and I stared at him, open-mouthed. Did an all powerful 12 year old son of Hades say we needed Sally's permission? "Only two people have been know to take the Curse and survive. Both had their mother's permission. Now do your Mage stuff and travel to Manhattan!" Nico faded into the shadows.

"What the Hades," sighed Percy before mist consumed him. I followed my brother. We appeared in our apartment with a loud clunk. Whoops. Sally and Paul rushed into the room. Paul was holding a baseball bat. He dropped it when he saw it was us and he and Sally plopped down on a couch. We told the adults about Typhon and they gasped. We also told them about the plan to take the curse.

"Percy, Christina, it's dangerous. Even for you two." Sally seemed genuinely worried about me for once. Over the past year, she had become a lot nicer to me. I still think she's trying to get something out of it.

"Mom," started Percy. "We know that we could die. Nico explained that. But if we don't try-"

"We'll all die," Nico carried on from there. "Mrs. Blofis, we don't stand a chance against an invasion and there will be an invasion. Percy and Nina need your blessing to do this. This has only been done successfully twice. Both times the mother had to be willing to allow her child, or in this case children, take the risk."

"You want me to bless this, Percy, Nina, please." I know, I know, I should be stressing out right about now, but I couldn't get over the fact that Sally Jackson had called me Nina, instead of girl or Christina like she's been doing lately. "This is crazy!"

"Sally, I mean Mom, please! We can't do this without you!" I thought maybe calling her mom instead of Sally or mother might help at least a little. Paul whispered something in her ear and she seemed to relent.

"Percy, Nina, I give you my blessing."

"It's time," said Nico anxiously.

Sally asked us to send her a sign that we survived. She actually said both of us. Wow, she really does care. She hugged Percy before turning to me. We stood there awkwardly, staring at the ground. "Nina," my mother broke the silence, "I know we've had our differences in the past, but you are my daughter and eldest child." Paul, Percy, and Nico turned around to give us some privacy. "And I'm sorry it's taken me this long to realize it, but Nina, I love you!" Sally launched herself at me and I awkwardly rubbed her back. I had been expecting her to have pretended to be nice to me all this time and then say that she wanted me to be extra sure to die."

"I can't say the same to you, Sal-I mean Mom. But, you are my mother and I definitely care about you, no matter what."

"Try not to die, Nina."