Changing the Future

Chapter 21

"Want me to show you?"

"Kinda, yeah," Percy said, having taken Annabeth's side on the argument. So good to know that they had expected me to drown.

I took off my shoes and socks before jumping into the lake, willing the water to push me to the bottom. Thankfully, I could withstand any pressure underwater like Percy could as a son of Poseidon, the only real difference in our powers being that I can't stay dry in the water. I mean, I can't cause earthquakes or volcanic eruptions either, but that was a good thing, in my opinion.

I stayed and held a conversation with some naiads for five minutes, much longer than almost anyone could hold their breath and not suffer serious brain damage. Then, using the lake floor as a launching pad, I pushed off and began to swim to the surface, enjoying the silence in the water.

When I broke the surface, I had the water lift me onto the dock, wanting to demonstrate that like Percy, I can't drown in normal water. Magic water on the other hand, well, that's a lot messier.

"Believe me now?" I kneeled over the edge of the dock, ringing some of the water out of my hair. Once again, I let my skin heat up to dry off my clothes.

Both Annabeth and Percy were pale. Meanwhile, Tyson clapped enthusiastically, saying, "Do your water magic again, Andy!"

I obliged, summoning some water from the lake and shaping it into a ball. I began playing catch with Tyson, making sure to keep the water from losing its shape every time Tyson caught the delicate ball in his ginormous hands. This was actually a very good method of training mental precision and multitasking, I thought to myself, finally setting the water back down into the lake as curfew was approaching.

"What...but...how?" Percy spluttered out, unable to settle on a single question to ask me.

"Probably my godly parent." I began lacing up my sneakers, trying to bite back my laughter as Percy kept struggling to form a coherent thought.

"But Dad would've claimed you by now!"

"Percy, I'm twenty. If Poseidon was my father, the Great Prophecy would've passed by now."

"You're right," Annabeth agreed. I could see the gears in her mind turning as she tried to figure how the heck I had water powers when I had no connection to any water deity. "That rules out Zeus and Hades, too."

"Are you my sister?" Tyson asked, completely lost in terms of the conversation. Annabeth shot him a dirty look.

"No, sorry, bud." He looked so saddened by the fact that I added, "But we can be friends."

"Yay, friend!"

Tyson ran over and gave me a bone crushing hug. Gods, I could feel my ribs touching each other, something that shouldn't even be anatomically possible unless he just broke all of them. But seeing that I wasn't suffocating, I let Tyson hold onto me for as long as he wanted while Annabeth stared at us in disgust.

"We can talk more tomorrow, I promise. But I need to uphold my promise to Mr. D, too, and that means it's curfew."

"Are you sleeping with us tonight?" Percy asked.

"I practically live in cabin three, Perce. Plus, it's not like I can just waltz back into cabin eleven and ask for my spot on the floor back."

"You could."

"But I won't."

Percy shrugged. "I mean, if Dad hasn't said anything about it, I don't think there's anything wrong with it."

"You're both crazy. Goodnight," Annabeth said, walking ahead of us to make it back to her cabin before our regularly scheduled curfew was enforced by the cleaning harpies.