The Titans Curse: Apollo's Daughter

Dancing With Manticores

Once we stepped into the gym all I saw were black and red balloons all over the gym floor, guys kicking them in each other's faces or trying to strangle each other with the paper streamers that were taped to the walls. The girls reminded me of the Aphrodite girls, wearing lots of makeup and spaghetti-strap tops and brightly colored pants and shoes known as the torture devices called high heels.

Some of the older guys looked more like Percy, uncomfortable, hanging out at the edges of the gym and trying to hide, looking like they were ready at any moment to fight for their lives. In our case, it was kind of a literal worry.

"There they are." Grover nodded toward a couple of younger kids arguing in the bleachers. "Bianca and Nico di Angela" The girl wore a floppy green cap like she was trying to hide her face. The boy was obviously her little brother. They both had dark silky hair and olive skin, and they used their hands a lot as they talked. The boy was shuffling some kind of trading cards and his sister seemed to be scolding him about something. She kept looking around like she sensed something was wrong. They looked so familiar but i just couldn't place where I had seen them...

"Do they... I mean, have you told them?" Annabeth asked. Grover shook his head.

"That could put them in more danger."  

"So let's grab them and get out of here," Percy said. He started to take a few steps forward, but Thalia grabbed him by the shoulder and it's a good thing she did. The vice principal, Dr. Thorn was standing near the di Angelo siblings but his eyes were trained in a hard glare at us.

"Don't look at the kids," Thalia ordered. "We have to wait for a chance to get them. We need to pretend we're not interested in them. Throw him off the scent."

"How?" I asked, my eyebrows raised.

"Mingle. Act natural. Dance. But keep an eye on them."   

"Dance?" Annabeth and I asked in unison. Thalia nodded as she took a moment to listen to the music and made a clearly disgusted face. 

"What even is this music?"

"Jesse McCartney," I said with a small shrug. "Who picked this?" 

Grover looked hurt. "I did."

"Oh my gods, Grover. That is so lame. Can't you play, like, Green Day or something?" Thalia complained.

"Green who?"

"Never mind. Let's dance." She said, grabbing Grover by the hand and leading him towards the middle of the gym where kids were dancing.

"But I can't dance!" 

"You'll be fine. Come on, goat boy." Annabeth was soon whisked away by some guy, I was honestly kind of amazed she didn't break his nose when he just came up and lead her towards the dance floor. This left me alone in a somewhat awkward silence between me and Percy.

Percy's POV

It was a little awkward standing there alone with Skyler. She's your girlfriend, why is it so weird feeling? You've barely said a word to her since you got in the car... Skyler's eyes watched Grover attempt to dance, a smile spreading across her face... That perfect smile could light up even these dark halls of Westover.

"What?" She asked, shyly tucking a strand of her now shoulder length blonde hair behind her ear. It was cute, well...everything about her was cute, no scratch that--

"Nothing, you're just...beautiful," I said softly, a small blush flooding her cheeks. The light dusting of freckles that coated her face seemed lighter after not being touched by the sun for a good couple of months. Her blue eyes seemed to shine and sparkle in the dim light of the gymnasium. I took notice of the pair of small sun and moon stud earrings she wore, the light layer of mascara that coated her eyelashes and the small scar above her right eyebrow that Annabeth had told me she gotten from the camps climbing wall when they were younger...just...everything about her was just perfect yet so different from the last time I saw her.