PERCY
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Two days later it was Percy's birthday.
He never really advertised the date, because it always fell right after camp, so none of his camp friends could usually come, and he didn't have that many mortal friends. Besides, getting older didn't seem like anything to celebrate since he'd gotten the big prophecy about him destroying or saving the world when he turned sixteen. Now, Percy was turning fifteen. He was running out of time.
Sally threw Percy a small party at their apartment. Paul Blofis came over, but that was okay because Chiron had manipulated the Mist to convince everyone at Goode High School that Percy had nothing to do with the band room explosion. Now Paul and the other witnesses were convinced that Kelli had been a crazy, firebomb-throwing cheerleader, while brave Percy Jackson had simply been an innocent bystander who'd panicked and ran from the scene. He would still be allowed to start as a freshman at Goode next month. If he wanted to keep his record of getting kicked out of school every year, he'd have to try harder.
Tyson came to the party, too, and Sally baked two extra blue cakes just for him.
"Sen could not come." Tyson said a little sadly as he helped Sally blow up balloons. Percy nodded, trying not to show his disappointment. "Big fight with Sugar Kline. Got grounded."
"No biggie." Percy said.
"Hey, Percy?" Paul called. "Mind helping me in the kitchen?"
As they were pouring punch, Paul said, "I hear your mom signed you up for driver's ed this fall."
"Yeah, it's cool. I can't wait."
Seriously, Percy had been excited about getting his license forever, but for some reason, his heart wasn't in it anymore, and Paul could tell. In a weird way he reminded Percy of Chiron sometimes, how he could look at you and actually see your thoughts. Percy guessed it was that teacher aura.
"You've had a rough summer." Paul said. "I'm guessing you lost someone important. And... girl trouble?"
Percy stared at him. "How did you know that? My mom-"
He held up his hands. "Your mom hasn't said a thing. And I won't pry. I just know there's something unusual about you, Percy. You've got a lot going on that I can't figure. But I was also fifteen once, and I'm just guessing from your expression... Well, you've had a rough time."
Percy nodded. He'd promised his mom he would tell Paul the truth about who he was, but now didn't seem the time. Not yet. "I lost a couple of friends at this camp I go to." Percy said. "I mean, not close friends, but still-"
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah." Percy's cheeks went red. "And, uh, the girl stuff-"
"Here." Paul handed Percy some punch. "To your fifteenth birthday. And to a better year to come."
They tapped their paper cups together and drank.
"Percy, I kind of feel bad giving you one more thing to think about." Paul said. He sounded... nervous? "But I wanted to ask you something."
Percy gulped. "Yeah?"
"Girl stuff."
Percy frowned. "Uh, what do you mean?"
"Your mom." Paul said. "I'm thinking about proposing to her."
Percy almost dropped his cup. "You mean... marrying her? You and her?"
"Well, that was the general idea. Would that be okay with you?"
"You're asking my permission?"
Paul scratched his beard. "I don't know if it's permission, so much, but she's your mother. And I know you're going through a lot. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't talk to you about it first, man to man."
"Man to man." Percy repeated. It sounded strange, saying that. He thought about Paul and his mom, how she smiled and laughed more whenever he was around, and how Paul had gone out of his way to get Percy into high school. He found himself saying, "I think that's a great idea, Paul. Go for it."
Paul smiled really wide then. "Cheers, Percy. Let's join the party."
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Percy was just getting ready to blow out the candles when the doorbell rang.
Sally frowned. "Who could that be?"
It was weird, because the new building had a doorman, but he hadn't called up or anything. Sally opened the door and gasped.
It was Percy's dad. He was wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and Birkenstocks, like he usually does. His black beard was neatly trimmed and his sea-green eyes twinkled. He wore a battered cap decorated with fishing lures. It said NEPTUNE'S LUCKY FISHING HAT.
"Pos-" Sally stopped herself. She was blushing right to the roots of her hair. "Um, hello."
"Hello, Sally." Poseidon said. "You look as beautiful as ever. May I come in?"
Sally made a squeaking sound that might've been either a "Yes" or "Help." Poseidon took it as a yes and came in.
Paul was looking back and forth between Sally, Percy, and Poseidon, trying to read their expressions. Finally he stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Paul Blofis."
Poseidon raised his eyebrows as they shook hands. "Blowfish, did you say?"
"Ah, no. Blofis, actually."
"Oh, I see." Poseidon said. "A shame. I quite like blowfish. I am Poseidon."
Paul squinted. "Poseidon? That's an interesting name."
"Yes, I like it. I've gone by other names, but I do prefer Poseidon."
"Like the god of the sea."
"Very much like that, yes."
"Well!" Sally interrupted. "Um, we're so glad you could drop by. Paul, this is Percy's father."
"Ah." Paul nodded, though he didn't look real pleased. "I see."
Poseidon smiled at Percy. "There you are, my boy. And Tyson, hello, son!"
"Daddy!" Tyson bounded across the room and gave Poseidon a big hug, which almost knocked off his fishing hat.
Paul's jaw dropped. He stared at Sally. "Tyson is..."
"Not mine." She promised. "It's a long story."
"I couldn't miss Percy's fifteenth birthday." Poseidon said. "Why, if this were Sparta, Percy would be a man today!"
"That's true." Paul said. "I used to teach ancient history."
Poseidon's eyes twinkled. "That's me. Ancient history-"
"UGH, OH MY GOSH!"
Every single person froze as heavy footsteps came tromping up the stairs.
And then, the one, the only- Sen Hoa strolled on in wearing three-inch white heels, a light blue dress that sort of swirled though there was no wind, and her hair pinned back with butterfly clips. She had a really giant bag in her hands that was decorated with fish on it and said HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY! only she used a sharpie to cross out 3RD and write 15TH!
"Ugh, the amount of crap I had to go through to get here!" Sen gaped as she pushed past Poseidon like she hadn't even noticed his presence. "Stupid Sugar Kline tried to fight me, and then Chiron tried to ground me, and then some stupid guy on the subway spit on my foot! How rude! I am terribly sorry for being so late, but at least I made it! Hooray!"
Tyson was the only one that cheered with her. "Hooray!"
Percy stared at her, shocked. "Wha- You- Tyson said-" Poseidon nudged him. "Sen, what are you doing here?"
Sen put a hand on her hip and raised her eyebrow. "Um, I'm visiting you for your birthday, stupid. Did you really think I was gonna miss this?"
"But, Tyson said you got in a fight." Percy said lowly.
"Yeah, so?" Sen finally seemed to noticed the elephant- elephants- in the room. "Oh! Hey, Paul!"
Paul waved. "Hello, Sen."
She turned to the other elephant- the biiiig elephant- and nodded respectfully, which was probably the least she could do without tipping of Paul about the whole non-mortal thing. "Hello, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Poseidon held a hand out and shook it. "Hello, Sen. Percy says a lot about you."
Percy turned bright red. "Dad, can you not?"
Sen walked over and hugged Sally. With the heels, they were about the same height, which was a little weird. "Oh my gosh, you would not believe the amount of crap I had to go through to get here! All for some stupid dweeb with a bad haircut!"
Percy frowned. "Hey!"
"Not you." Sen said.
Percy looked around. "Who else?"
"Yeah, that was a bad lie, wasn't it?" Sen winced. "So... were we going to do fun birthday things or are we all going to sit around like a god just walked in here?"
Paul was the only one that laughed. "That's funny!"
Percy joined in, and then Sally, but it mostly sounded nervous. "Uh, yeah, Sen's pretty funny..." Percy trailed off as she smiled innocently at him. She looked really pretty today. She looked pretty every day, but that didn't mean Percy couldn't say it.
Poseidon cleared his throat. "Sally, Paul, Tyson, Sen... would you mind if I borrowed Percy for a moment?"
He put his arm around Percy and steered his son into the kitchen.
Once they were alone, Poseidon's smile faded. "Are you all right, my boy?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. I guess."
"I heard stories." Poseidon said. "But I wanted to hear it directly from you. Tell me everything."
So Percy did. It was kind of disconcerting, because Poseidon listened so intently. His eyes never left Percy's face. His expression didn't change the whole time Percy talked. When he was done, Poseidon nodded slowly.
"So Kronos is indeed back. It will not be long before full war is upon us."
"What about Luke?" Percy asked. "Is he really gone?"
"I don't know, Percy. It is most disturbing."
"But his body is mortal. Couldn't you just destroy him?"
"Mortal, perhaps, but there is something different about Luke, my boy. I don't know how he was prepared to host the Titan's soul, but he will not be easily killed. And yet, I fear he must be killed if we are to send Kronos back to the pit." Poseidon said.
Prepared to host. "But..." Percy gulped. "Luke's body had to be prepared, they said. What about Sen? I mean, she- she hosted Apollo."
Poseidon looked at Percy and sighed. "Sen is an interesting case, Percy. Children of Psyche naturally have souls made to withstand what would destroy most. Her children are notorious for their capabilities of hosting gods, spirits, or demonic entities without much trouble. I must say, I wonder why Apollo chose Sen, and why she chose him, but it seems to have worked out in everyone's favor."
Percy nodded. That actually explained a lot. No wonder Sen seemed mostly okay after hosting a god- an Olympian no less.
"So... So Luke will have to be killed." Percy gulped.
Poseidon sighed. "I will have to think on this. Unfortunately, I have problems of my own."
Percy remembered what Tyson had told him at the beginning of the summer. "The old sea gods?"
"Indeed. The battle came first to me, Percy. In fact, I cannot stay long. Even now the ocean is at war with itself. It is all I can do to keep hurricanes and typhoons from destroying your surface world, the fighting is so intense."
"Let me come down there." Percy said. "Let me help."
Poseidon's eyes crinkled as he smiled. "Not yet, my boy. I sense you will be needed here. Which reminds me..." He brought out a sand dollar and pressed it into Percy's hand. "Your birthday present. Spend it wisely."
"Uh, spend a sand dollar?"
"Oh, yes. In my day, you could buy quite a lot with a sand dollar. I think you will find it still buys a lot, if used in the right situation."
"What situation?"
"When the time comes," Poseidon said. "I think you'll know."
Percy closed his hand around the sand dollar, but something was really bothering him.
"Dad," Percy said. "when I was in the maze, I met Antaeus. He said... well, he said he was your favorite son. He decorated his arena with skulls and-"
"He dedicated them to me." Poseidon supplied. "And you are wondering how someone could do something so horrible in my name."
Percy nodded uncomfortably.
Poseidon put his weathered hand on his son's shoulder. "Percy, lesser beings do many horrible things in the name of the gods. That does not mean we gods approve. The way our sons and daughters act in our names... well, it usually says more about them than it does about us. And you, Percy, are my favorite son."
He smiled, and at that moment, just being in the kitchen with him was the best birthday present Percy ever got. Then his mom called from the living room. "Percy? The candles are melting!"
"You'd better go." Poseidon said. "But, Percy, one last thing you should know. That incident at Mount St. Helens..."
For a second, Percy thought he was talking about Sen kissing him, and Percy blushed, but then he realized his dad was talking about something a lot bigger.
"The eruptions are continuing." He said. "Typhon is stirring. It is very likely that soon, in a few months, perhaps a year at best, he will escape his bonds."
"I'm sorry." Percy said. "I didn't mean-"
Poseidon raised his hand. "It is not your fault, Percy. It would've happened sooner or later, with Kronos awakening the ancient monsters. But be aware, if Typhon stirs... it will be unlike anything you have faced before. The first time he appeared, all the forces of Olympus were barely enough to battle him. And when he stirs again, he will come here, to New York. He will make straight for Olympus."
That was just the kind of wonderful news Percy wanted to get on his birthday, but Poseidon patted Percy on the back like everything was fine. "I should go. Enjoy your cake."
And just like that he turned to mist and was swept out the window on a warm ocean breeze.
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It took a little work to convince Paul that Poseidon had left via the fire escape, but since people can't vanish into thin air, he had no choice but to believe it.
Everyone ate blue cake and ice cream until they couldn't eat anymore. Then they played a bunch of cheesy party games like charades and Monopoly. Tyson didn't get charades. He kept shouting out the answer he was trying to mime, but it turned out he was really good at Monopoly. He knocked Percy and Sen out of the game in the first five rounds and started bankrupting Sally and Paul. Sen was decent at Monopoly since she spent so much time with the Stolls, but she was no match for Tyson.
"This game is dumb." Sen grumbled as she forked another massive Boardwalk payment over to Tyson, who giggled. "I hate Capitalism."
"Would you prefer communism?" Paul questioned as he rolled.
"Anarchy, actually."
"Interesting." He tapped his piece and paid Sen a whopping two dollars. "So, how did you manage to get here from your boarding school?"
Ah. Right. Paul was under the knowledge that Sen went to a special all-girls boarding school, when in truth, she went to a dysfunctional summer camp and spent most of her time with a pair of thieving boys.
Percy smiled as he looked at Sen.
"Oh, just some zoomin'." Sen waved off. "If there's a will, there's a way. And I had a will to come over here."
"How long have you known Percy?" Paul asked. It seemed like he was trying to learn more about Percy and Sally's lives- which included a lot of Sen.
"Since he was twelve." Sen smiled as Sally began her roll. "He was one of my only friends at this school we went to called Yancy Academy."
"Oh, that's nice." Paul smiled fondly. "I remember knowing a girl like that."
Sen perked up. "Really?"
Paul nodded as Sally paid Tyson another jillion dollars. "She was a little younger than me. I signed up for this Big Brother program for lonely kids, you see, and I got assigned her. A little Asian girl that looked pretty similar to you, actually."
Percy felt the temperature drop a million degrees as he nervously glanced at Sen, but she only smiled.
"Really?" She asked.
Paul nodded. "Yep. She moved away a little after that and I never saw her again, but she was a bright kid. Very smart and very loving. Really, you remind me a lot of her."
"Do you remember her name?" Sen ventured.
Paul hesitated just for a minute.
"It was Linh, as I recall."
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Percy left his family playing games in the living room as he went to his room.
He set an uneaten slice of blue cake on the dresser. Then he took off his Camp Half-Blood necklace and laid it on the windowsill. There were three beads now, representing his three summers at camp- a trident, the Golden Fleece, and the latest: an intricate maze, symbolizing the Battle of the Labyrinth, as the campers had started to call it. Percy wondered what next year's bead would be, if he was still around to get it. If the camp survived until next summer.
Percy looked at the phone by his bedside. He thought about calling Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Sally had asked him if there was anyone else he wanted to have over tonight, and he'd thought about Rachel. But he didn't call. He didn't know why. The idea made him almost as nervous as a door into the Labyrinth.
Percy patted his pockets and emptied them out- Riptide, a Kleenex, his apartment key. Then he patted his shirt pocket and felt a small lump. He hadn't even realized it, but he was wearing the white cotton shirt Calypso had given him on Ogygia. Percy brought out a little piece of cloth, unwrapped it, and found the clipping of moonlace. It was a tiny sprig, shriveled up after two months, but Percy could still smell the faint scent of the enchanted garden. It made him sad.
Percy remembered Calypso's last request: Plant a garden in Manhattan for me, will you? Percy opened the window and stepped onto the fire escape.
Sally kept a planter box out there. In the spring she usually filled it with flowers, but now it was all dirt, waiting for something new. It was a clear night. The moon was full over Eighty-second Street. Percy planted the dried sprig of moonlace carefully in the dirt and sprinkled a little nectar on it from his camp canteen.
Nothing happened at first.
Then, as Percy watched, a tiny silver plant sprang out of the soil- a baby moonlace, growing in the warm summer night.
"Nice plant." Nice rat.
Percy jumped. Nico di Angelo was standing on the fire escape right next to him. He'd just appeared there.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."
"That's- that's okay. I mean...what are you doing here?"
He'd grown about an inch taller over the last couple of months. His hair was a shaggy black mess. He wore a black T-shirt, black jeans, and a new silver ring shaped like a skull. His Stygian iron sword hung at his side.
"I've done some exploring." Nico said. "Thought you'd like to know, Daedalus got his punishment."
Percy winced. "You saw him?"
Nico nodded. "Minos wanted to boil him in cheese fondue for an eternity, but my father had other ideas. Daedalus will be building overpasses and exit ramps in Asphodel for all time. It'll help ease the traffic congestion. Truthfully, I think the old guy is pretty happy with that. He's still building. Still creating. And he gets to see his son and Perdix on the weekends."
"That's good-"
The bedroom door burst open and Percy jumped. Sen kicked off her heels and marched right to the window, and Percy heard Nico sigh.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
Nico groaned lamely as Sen yanked him into the apartment and wrapped him a tight hug. "Oh, you're so skinny! Nico, are you eating? Are you washing regularly? Please tell me that money I sent you didn't go to more aesthetic clothing! Are you tired? Do you want-"
"Calm down." Nico groaned as he broke away. "I'm fine."
Nico glanced inside Percy's room. His eyebrows furrowed. "Is that... is that blue birthday cake?"
He sounded hungry, maybe a little wistful. Percy wondered if the poor kid had ever had a birthday party, or if he'd ever even been invited to one.
"Come inside for some cake and ice cream." Percy said. Sen's eyes immediately lit up.
"Oh, yes! And I'll get you all nice and fattened up and you'll be all cute and adorable! Oh, and we can play Jenga and I can teach you Monopoly! It'll be awesome."
Nico rolled his eyes as he and Percy followed Sen. "Great. This should be fun."
He didn't look very annoyed, though.
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