TWO, bathroom blast
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FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, Aster made sure to stay by the mystery boy's side. Besides the fact that Lee Fletcher had asked her to grow special herbs for his and Grover's recovery, she wanted to be there when he woke up. If Chiron was to be believed, he supposedly had all the answers for what was happening in the mythical world, and Aster wanted to know what nature had been trying to tell her—or not tell her. Annabeth had joined her once or twice, eyes wide with curiosity. Aster knew they were thinking the same thing about him.
Aster especially noticed the longing look in Annabeth's gaze. She'd been wanting to leave camp since they were seven, dreaming of exploring the world. They hadn't gotten the opportunity to leave in five years, and Aster had a feeling this kid would be a way out. Aster didn't quite know how she felt about that; camp was predictable, and the outside world... was not. Plus there was a chance people would find out about her dad and—
She didn't want to think about it. She'd never told anyone about her father. Not Annabeth, not Luke, and not even Chiron. It was her business, and Aster felt a lot more comfortable keeping her cards close to her chest. The closest she'd ever gotten was when Chiron had asked about going home for the winter session, and she told him it wasn't an option; there wasn't a home to go to.
Because of Lee's lacking bedside manner, Aster had been the one to feed the boy ambrosia and nectar, unfortunately, and he had drooled all over her hand when she had done so. Sure, the guy was unconscious, but rude! She had to wash her hands three times after that. Argus, who was standing guard over the stranger, had laughed when it had happened. Then, Aster threw a knife that landed two inches to the left of his face, which left him considerably less amused.
Since the mystery boy's arrival, Aster kept waking up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat. Demigod dreams always had meaning, but she couldn't seem to remember the ones she'd been having over the past two nights. On the third night, however, Aster seemed to be aware in her dream.
Aster was standing on Half-Blood Hill, next to Thalia's tree. Since that fateful day that the daughter of Zeus had sacrificed herself, Aster had tried to speak to it. She desperately hoped that her soul was still trapped, and with her powers she could hear her friend's voice again. Much to her dismay, the grand pine seemed to be the only plant Aster couldn't communicate with. It never spoke to her, even though she tried for years.
As she walked towards the tree, Aster's attention was captured by a familiar cry of anguish.
"Mom!"
It was the mystery boy. The minotaur was standing over him and Grover, the monster holding a woman in the air.
"No!" the boy shouted.
With an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around the woman's neck and she just dissolved, melting into a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply... gone.
Aster stood watching them, her eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. When the minotaur is sent after you, it never ends well. She tried to move towards them, but her feet were frozen in the ground. She desperately hoped that the two boys wouldn't meet the woman's fate, wherever it was she had gone.
The boy went on to fight the bull-man, and Aster watched helplessly as it ran down Grover, her feet frozen when the mystery boy began insulting the monster. He was waving his red rain jacket around, trying to get the minotaur to run him down like a regular bull. Stupid kid, Aster thought to herself. The minotaur is the furthest thing from a normal bull. But with a quick jump and some maneuvering, the boy landed on the monster's neck.
Furious, the minotaur tried shaking the boy off. As the monster turned in the direction of Grover, the boy grabbed onto the minotaur's horn with both hands. He pulled, and the horn just... snapped off. The monster shook the boy off, and Aster watched in horror as the boy's head hit a rock and he landed on the ground with a loud thud.
The minotaur charged him, but the boy rolled to the side and stabbed the monster with its own horn. The monster roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate, like crumbling sand—in the way that Aster had seen many times before.
Stabbing the minotaur with its own horn. Aster might've laughed at the irony if the situation wasn't so serious.
As the boy went off into the distance, towards herself and Chiron, Aster felt a presence behind her. She turned to look and there was a girl, sitting in the branches of Thalia's tree. She looked to be around fourteen or fifteen, with short black hair and electric blue eyes that were so bright that they were a bit startling. Aster knew those eyes.
"Thalia!" Aster cried out, but she still couldn't move.
Thalia smirked at her. "He's the one, daughter of Demeter," she spoke, but it came out in an echo, like they were in a chasm of some sort. It didn't sound entirely like the girl she had known, but her voice could have changed with time. "Follow your instincts. They led you to me, after all. You have until the summer solstice to find it. He will show you the way, whether it seems like it or not."
With a fierce giggle, Thalia was gone. She had disappeared into thin air.
Aster shot up from her bed, sweating and breathing heavily. That must've been what had happened before her and Chiron had arrived, finding both boy and satyr unconscious. Still, she was slightly amazed. For a demigod to fight the minotaur as one of their first monsters, and walk away from the encounter was not someone to be reckoned with. The one indeed.
But she wasn't sure what he was "the one" for. The one to finally beat her on the rock wall? The one to help her and Annabeth leave camp? The one who had the answers to help stop this war? Who knows. The gods and the Fates were something that Aster was sure she would never understand.
The more she thought about it as she worked in the strawberry fields, the more the dream didn't make sense. Follow your instincts, Thalia had said, They led you to me, after all. Aster didn't know if it was her instincts or luck that had led her to Thalia and Luke all those years ago, but she mostly thought it was an accident that she stumbled upon them.
Aster tried to shake the dream from her head as she headed to the infirmary later that day. Thinking about things like prophecies and dreams for too long was a waste of time, Annabeth always told her. The meanings would make sense when they had to, and not a moment sooner. For someone who struggled with control issues, this really pissed Aster off.
Sure enough, when Aster walked into the mystery boy's room, he was still sound asleep. No one else was in the room, but the ambrosia was still out next to him. Aster signed, knowing Lee wanted her to do it. Why he never delegated these tasks to his siblings, she would never know.
Only this time, the boy's eyes fluttered open. Aster was so surprised—he was waking up! She couldn't hold back her questions any longer. "What will happen at the summer solstice?" she hissed at him eagerly.
"What?" the boy croaked.
Aster looked around, afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"
"I'm sorry," he mumbles, "I don't—"
Aster could hear footsteps nearing her, so she cut off the boy by shoving a spoonful of ambrosia into his mouth. He passed out once again, and Aster sighed in defeat. She was never going to get any answers if Drool Boy kept passing out every chance she got to ask him.
Another day passed by, and Aster was growing impatient. She knew he would wake up eventually, as the Apollo campers said he was healing steadily, but she wanted it to be sooner. The words of Thalia from her dream kept returning to her. He's the one, daughter of Demeter. And the deadline she'd given Aster—the summer solstice—was nearing closer.
Currently, Aster was standing on the porch of the Big House, and she was bored out of her mind. Aster had come to tell Chiron about her dream, and he listened adamantly, head nodding the whole time. Mr. D was sitting there as well, playing pinochle with Chiron, but he couldn't care less about the dealings of demigods. Aster had also wanted to be nearby in case Drool Boy woke up, but that was a secondary motive.
"That is an interesting dream," Chiron said after Aster had finished telling, his hand on his beard as he pondered her words. "And you are absolutely sure that it was Thalia?"
"Yeah, it was her," Aster sighed, disappointed and leaning back against the rail of the porch. "It almost didn't sound like her. Like someone was speaking through her. I don't know, that sounds stupid."
"It is not stupid, Aster," Chiron said compassionately. "You know better than anyone that demigod dreams have meaning, and if what she told you is true, then it means that he is the one. Whatever that should mean for you."
"Crap," Aster muttered. Drool Boy would be the one to... what? Take her out of her misery?
"Hey, ten-year-olds shouldn't curse," Mr. D said, not looking up from his cards and taking a swig of Diet Coke. The camp director was wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt that day, in red instead of his usual purple.
"I'm twelve!" Aster protested—thinking it might be better to ignore the fact that she didn't actually curse—but Chiron gave her a look to drop it. Aster would argue with anything and anybody, anywhere at any time. But generally, arguing with a god isn't the best decision.
Eventually, Grover and Drool Boy approached them, and Aster stood up straight from where she was leaning. For a moment, her eyes caught his sea green ones, which were considerably more bright when his conciseness wasn't fleeting.
"That's Mr. D. He's the camp director. Be polite." Aster could hear Grover muttering to the other boy, though she could tell he was trying to be discreet. She almost gave a little wave when he mentioned her, but decided against it. "The girl with the dark hair, that's Aster Reed. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron—"
"Mr. Brunner!" Drool Boy exclaimed, and Chiron smiled. Aster's eyebrows furrowed. She did know that Chiron had been on a special mission over the winter session, but she wouldn't have guessed it would be as a caretaker or teacher.
"Ah, good, Percy," Chiron said, a familiar warm gleam in his eye. "Now we have four for pinochle. Aster never plays with us."
"I have ADHD," Aster said, studying her nail beds. "Sue me if I can't pay attention to some things."
Chiron offered Percy a chair in between him and Mr. D, their camp director, who looked pleasantly unpleased. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."
"Uh, thanks," Percy said warily, and scooted his chair away from the camp director. Aster suppressed her laugh. In his defense, she would have done the same thing if seated next to Mr. D.
"Aster?" Chiron said, looking at the girl expectantly. He motioned with his hand to step forward, and Aster obliged, a less than enthusiastic expression on her face. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy." Aster gave Percy a two finger salute with a tight lipped smile, and he gave her a funny look. "Aster, my dear, why don't you catch up with Annabeth and go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."
Aster nodded. "Sure, Chiron." Percy studied her for a moment, before Aster narrowed her eyes at him and he looked down into his lap. "You drool when you sleep," she said before sprinting down the lawn to find Annabeth. She could feel Percy's gaze burning the back of her head, but she didn't look back.
Aster found Annabeth in the grass in front of the Athena cabin, reading a book about Ancient Greek Architecture. It looked familiar, so she assumed the daughter of Athena had read it before. She was obsessed with architecture, and tried to learn as much as she could about it. Books weren't exactly Aster's thing, with the dyslexia and all, but Annabeth alway seemed to find things around it.
"Hey, Beth," Aster said in greeting. "Drool Boy woke up."
Annabeth practically threw down the book. "Really? What happened?"
"Oh, you know, the usual lack-luster greeting from Mr. D, the invitation to play pinochle by Chiron. Had a minotaur horn so I guess my dream was accurate."
"Well I guess that means the other part of the dream is true—"
Aster waved her off. "Let's not talk about that right now. Chiron wants us to 'prepare Percy's bunk.'"
"Does he realize that it's just going to be a sleeping bag in the corner, which will probably be tampered with by the Stoll brothers?"
"Probably not," Aster shrugged. "I don't try to argue with our superiors."
Annabeth gave her an incredulous look, which made Aster grin wildly.
The two girls made their way to cabin eleven, which housed the Hermes kids plus everyone who was unclaimed. Naturally, it was always packed. They waited out front of the cabin until Chiron came by with Percy, his eyes wide with questions.
"Aster, Annabeth," Chiron called. "I have a masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"
"Yes, sir," Aster replied, saluting the centaur. Annabeth hit her in the side, but there was the ghost of a smile on her face. Chiron simply ignored the gesture, as he normally did her antics.
"Cabin eleven," Chiron told Percy, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."
Aster and Annabeth led Percy inside, and it was packed with kids, all staring at Percy and the horn in his hand. All of the bunks had been filled a long time ago, so there were sleeping bags spread out on the floor to accommodate for the extra campers. Chiron didn't enter because the doorway was too low for him, but the campers still bowed for him.
"Well then," Chiron said, "good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner." With that, he galloped away towards the archery range.
Percy stood in the doorway awkwardly, and Aster leaned on the wall near him. Annabeth was beside her, gray eyes leaping around the room, always assessing her surroundings. The Hermes and unclaimed kids were studying him, trying to decipher if he was a threat or not.
"Well?" Annabeth looked at him expectantly, "Go on."
"We don't have all day, Drool Boy," Aster added, and Percy gave her a strange look, but stepped through the doorway nonetheless.
On the way into the cabin, Percy tripped and nearly fell on his face. Great first impression, new kid. She cringed as he got up. Some of the older teens snickered, but they were silenced by one cold glare from Aster.
"Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven," Aster announced. The silence that answered was not what she'd hoped for, but what she'd come to expect.
"Regular or undetermined," a camper asked.
"Undetermined," Annabeth replied, prompting a groan from the cabin. Percy looked discouraged at this, but neither Aster or Annabeth said anything.
Luke then came forward, much to Aster's relief. She really didn't like dealing with cabin eleven. Luckily, they usually steered clear of her ever since she had strung the Stoll brothers up with tree roots last summer after they had tried to pour gatorade over her and Katie at the campfire.
"This is Luke," Annabeth introduced the boy, her eyes turning slightly dreamy. Aster's friend had had a crush on Luke since they were seven and had saved them many times from monster attacks on their way to Camp Half-Blood. Unlike Annabeth, Aster saw him as more of a big brother than anything else. He sure didn't treat either of them as anything but little sisters. Annabeth's cheeks flushed pink, but as soon as she caught Percy looking, her gaze hardened. "He's your counselor for now."
"For now?" Percy asked.
"You're undetermined," Luke explained. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."
Percy looked down at the small section of floor they had sectioned off for him, and even Aster could admit it looked pathetic. "How long will I be here?" he asked.
"Good question. Until you're determined."
"How long will that take?"
The campers laughed. Aster knew this wasn't going anywhere good, so she stepped forward.
"Come on," she said prudently, "Me and Annabeth'll show you the volleyball court."
"I've already seen it," Percy said, obviously not getting her hint.
Aster resisted the urge to roll her eyes and grabbed his wrist, pulling him out of the cabin.
"Just, come on." The campers of cabin eleven continued to laugh as Aster dragged the poor boy out, Annabeth at their heels.
After they were a good distance away from the cabin, Aster put a hand to her temple, frustrated. How could this idiot be the one she had been told about? "Jackson, you have to do better than that."
"What?"
Aster finally gave in and rolled her eyes, mumbling under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."
"What's your problem?" Percy said, and Aster could tell his temper was rising. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"
"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth snapped, much to Aster's surprise. She was normally the level headed one of the pair. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"
"To get killed?"
"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"
Percy shook his head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories—"
Aster nodded. "Yes."
"Then there's only one."
"Obviously." Aster swore her patience was fleeting faster than it usually did.
"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right?" Percy reasoned, his arms moving with his explanation, almost hitting Aster in the face once or twice. "Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So . . ."
"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed, but they don't die," Aster explained, and Percy looked at her like she just told a trout to climb a tree.
"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."
"They don't have souls, like we do." Annabeth explained further. Aster reminded herself that he was new to this sort of thing, but that did little to cool her annoyance. "You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."
"You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"
"The Fur . . . I mean, your math teacher," Percy looked confused that Aster knew about that. "That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."
"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"
"You talk in your sleep." A lot.
"You almost called her something. A Fury?" Aster and Annabeth winced, but Percy didn't seem to notice. "They're Hades' torturers, right?"
Aster glanced around nervously at the ground, half-expecting something to come crawling out of the ground at Percy's summons. Especially since that particular monster was extremely pissed at him now.
"You shouldn't call them by name, even here," Annabeth warned. "We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."
"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" Percy practically whined, but Aster didn't comment on it. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there." He pointed at the cabins at the end of the horseshoe, and Aster could feel the blood rushing from her face. Annabeth went quite pale too, glancing nervously at Hera's cabin. Hera and Athena didn't exactly agree on most things, which reflected onto her children.
"You can't just choose a cabin, Percy. That's not how this works. It depends on who your parents are. Or rather, your parent," Aster emphasized. She waited for him to understand, but he didn't, of course.
"My mom is Sally Jackson," he said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."
"I–I'm really sorry about your mom, Percy." Aster hoped she sounded sincere because she knew how it felt to lose a parent. Especially the one who raised you. "But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."
"He's dead," Percy said adamantly, "I never knew him."
Aster sighed. This kind of thing never got any easier to explain, no matter how many times she did it.
"Your father's not dead, Percy," Annabeth said.
"How can you say that?" Percy stared them down with disdain. "You know him?"
"No, of course not."
"That would be a miracle if she did," Aster added.
Percy looked at her skeptically. "Then how can you say—"
"Because I know you," Annabeth cut him off. "You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."
"You don't know anything about me," Percy said defensively.
"No?" Aster raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."
"How–"
Annabeth continued, "Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."
Percy swallowed hard. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek."
"And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom," Aster continued. "That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. They did when you fought the Minotaur."
"As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they really are."
Percy's sea green eyes studied them. "You sound like . . . you guys went through the same thing?"
"The majority of us did. It's just how our lives go." Aster's tone softened. "If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."
"Ambrosia and nectar." Percy repeated her words, sounding strange and foreign in his mouth.
"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead." Percy winced. "Face it. You're a half-blood."
Percy looked like he was going to ask a million more questions, gripping to the Minotaur horn for dear life. But then a familiar rough voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"
Aster groaned, rubbing her eyes. Annabeth didn't look too thrilled either. Clarisse, daughter of Ares, was headed straight for them.
Aster and Clarisse had a... complicated relationship. Clarisse mostly saw her as a tree-hugging hippie just because she liked to grow flowers in her spare time, but was always shocked whenever Aster beat her in duels. (For the record, just because she liked flowers did not make her weak!) Annabeth was used to outsmarting the girl, so the daughter of Ares wasn't a huge fan of hers either. Three of her sisters were following behind her, all just as tall and mean looking as her. They were all wearing matching camo jackets. Aster thought they looked ridiculous, but kept her jokes to herself, knowing she would get pummeled if she commented on them.
"Clarisse, lovely to see you," Aster said with mock enthusiasm, "Don't you have better things to do than bother us? Or is your life that boring? Why don't you go polish daddy's little spear or something?"
"Sure, barley face," Clarisse shot back, "So I can run you through with it Friday night."
"Erre es korakas! " Annabeth cursed at her in Greek, meaning 'Go to the crows!'. "You don't stand a chance. We're going to wipe the floor with you."
"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse turned her smirk onto Aster. "Though I'm sure Aster here will be too busy laying in a field, picking dandelions and making flower crowns to do any real damage."
Aster bared her teeth at the girl, her hand resting on the pommel of the knife sheathed at her side. Most people at camp assumed that the children of Demeter were useless, on par with the Aphrodite kids. Nothing angered Aster more people assuming things about her just because of her parentage. Clarisse and Annabeth were respected on the battlefield because of their parents; Aster was usually laughed at, even though she was one of the best fighters at camp.
Aster was ready to reply, but Clarisse noticed Percy before she could say anything. "Who's this little runt?"
"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, daughter of Ares."
Percy stared blankly at the big girl. "Like . . . the war god?"
Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"
"No," Percy said plainly, but Aster was anxious about his next words. She hoped he would choose them carefully. "It explains the bad smell." There it was.
Clarisse's lip curled angrily. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."
"Percy."
"Whatever. Come one, I'll show you." Clarisse had an unsettling grin spread across her face, her eyes glinting.
"Clarisse–" Aster started, but Clarisse cut her off.
"Stay out of it, flower girl."
Aster flinched at the nickname, as she did normally whenever Clarisse tried to use it as an insult. Her father used to call her that, before—never mind. Aster did stay out of it, but Percy didn't look like he could be bothered. He handed Annabeth his minotaur horn and got into a stance to fight, which looked sort of ridiculous—she would have to teach him proper form later so he didn't get himself killed.
Before Percy could even think about taking a swing at Clarisse, she had the poor boy by the neck and was dragging Percy towards the public camp restrooms. This "initiation" by Clarisse and her siblings was a new one, and it was certainly the most disgusting one there had ever been.
Percy struggled against Clarisse's grip, but it was no use. Due to her parentage and enhanced strength and size, Aster knew he wasn't going anywhere. Her and Annabeth shared a scared look, then they followed helplessly behind the group.
The girls' bathroom itself was disgusting as the harpies rarely stopped by to clean it, due to not many people using it. It smelled like a truck stop bathroom, reminding Aster of her journey to Camp Half-Blood so many years ago. She quickly pushed the unpleasant memory from her mind.
Clarisse dragged Percy to the nearest stall, her and her sisters all laughing. Percy still struggled against her, but Aster could tell from his slower movements that he was giving up. Aster and Annabeth took to standing in the corner. Annabeth's free hand was covering her eyes, though she was watching through the gaps between her fingers. Aster's hands were curled into fists, but she knew she couldn't realistically take on Clarisse and three of her sisters all at once.
"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed Percy toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."
Her sisters snickered at that.
What happened next occurred so quickly that Aster wasn't entirely sure what had happened.
All she knew was one minute, Clarisse was laughing her butt off while shoving Percy's head in a toilet, and the next, she was screaming while being sprayed square in the face by a jet of water. She struggled to get up, and the three other girls rushed over to her. But then the other toilets exploded, six more streams of toilet water blasting them away from their sister. The showers came next, and combining together to push the camouflage clad girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away. As soon as they were out of the door, the water shut off and it was over as quickly as it had begun.
Aster's mouth hung slightly open, too shocked to do anything but stare at Percy. She had never, in her almost-five years at this stupid camp, seen anything quite like that. Aster might've been laughing if she wasn't soaking wet herself. A glance to her right confirmed that Annabeth was also drenched, clutching the Minotaur horn to her chest. Then she noticed the strangest thing about the whole encounter.
Percy was sitting in a small circle of dryness, not a spot of water on his clothes. It seemed impossible. Too impossible to simply be a coincidence. Percy stood up shakily.
"How did you . . ." Aster said quietly, motioning around the room.
"I don't know," Percy simply replied.
The three of them walked to the door, where Clarisse and her sisters were sprawled out in the mud. A bunch of other campers gathered around to gawk at them. Clarisse was dripping with water, her hair flattened across her face, and she smelled like sewage. Her eyes were burning daggers looking at Percy. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."
Percy straightened. "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."
Her sisters had to hold her back. They wisely dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.
Aster was too shocked to even be angry about being soaked through to her bones. Otherwise she would have throttled him. When she looked over at Annabeth, there was an idea glittering in her eyes. They both stared at Percy, who crossed his arms defensively.
"What?" Percy demanded. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking," Annabeth said, exchanging a look with Aster, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."