It was the last day of the school semester. I'd survived my first year of high school and Percy had survived a whole year without blowing up a school. There were plenty of things to celebrate. The only bad part was that Sally hadn't told Percy that we weren't leaving for camp tomorrow. He'd gone into my room a few times within the past few days, estatically talking about all the things he was excited for. I had to just sit and listen with a fake smile on my face. Sally had asked me not to tell Percy about camp so I just had to keep my mouth shut.
"...I got a message from Chiron last night," I heard Sally saying as I entered the kitchen in the morning.
"What did he say?" Percy asked, his voice showing signs of distress.
I took a seat next to him as she started explaining, "He thinks... it might not be safe for you two to come to camp just yet. We might have to postpone your arrival."
"Did it happen?" I asked quietly.
She nodded, "A few days ago."
"What happened? How would camp not be safe? I thought it was the only place that was safe for people like us. And how come Cass knew about this and not me?" Percy demanded.
"I was waiting to explain this all to you this afternoon. There's not enough time before school to do it now. I don't know how to explain it all yet. I don't know if even Chiron could explain it actually. A lot has happened in a very quick amount of time."
"So it was something they hadn't prepared for. I guess it makes sense considering they were given a warning of danger but not what exactly they should've expected," I concluded, "What was done to camp?"
"Like I said, I can't explain it now. You two should head off for school. Tyson will be waiting."
"But-" Percy tried.
"After school," Sally's tone made the two of us clamp our mouths closed. Her decision was final. Percy and I exchanged a look before grabbing our bookbags and making our way to the door.
Percy stopped just before we left, "Mom, do you think the problem at camp has anything to do with my dream about Grover?"
I shot him a questioning glance while she said, "We'll talk this afternoon."
After the door shut behind us, I looked at my younger brother, "What's this about Grover?"
"You tell me how you knew camp was in danger first," he challenged.
"Trust me, that's not an answer you want to hear. If it happens to come up when we talk to your mom later, I'll tell you," I said, pulling my hat down further over my head despite the summer heat, "But just know someone told me that camp would be in trouble this summer so I passed the message onto Chiron. Now what's going on with Grover?"
I could tell he wanted to argue but decided that answers eventually were better than no answers at all, "I don't exactly know. I think he might be in trouble though. I had a vision of him running away from something but I don't know what."
"I suppose that you didn't have enough time to tell Chiron this, right?" I asked.
"No, I-" he cut himself off before we got to Tyson, Percy's only friend at school. He didn't know about our world and it was better we didn't continue this conversation around him. This could wait until the end of school considering it was only a vision at this point.
Tyson was a very tall kid with peanut butter always stuck in his teeth. Percy had once told me that he could never look Tyson in the eye since that would mean looking past his teeth. I don't think I'd ever seen Tyson's eyes for that very same reason. He was very sweet but also very sensitive. I couldn't crack my usual jokes around him because I was always afraid I was going to make him cry. He had the speech of a much younger person too.
"Cass!" Tyson said happily as soon as he saw us. For some reason, Tyson always seemed way too happy to see me.
"Hey Tyson," I smiled at him, "You guys have a good last day of school."
"You too!" Tyson and Percy both echoed as we went our separate ways. Tyson usually met us at the break-off point between the middle school and the high school. The rest of this walk was for me to do alone.
Or I thought I'd be alone. As soon as Percy and Tyson were out of my sight, something grabbed me and yanked me back. I stumbled over my feet, not expecting the sudden grasp. Once I caught my footing, I whipped around. But nobody was there.
That was, until Annabeth Chase took off her Yankees ball cap and became visible, "I'm surprised you didn't sense me coming."
"I thought you were in a whole other state," I countered, dropping my raised fists.
"I was until a few days ago. Monsters found me and have been chasing me down. And I think something's wrong at camp."
I sighed, "You'd be right about that."
"How do you know?"
"Luke warned me not to go back this summer. He said something big was coming but wouldn't tell me what. How do you know there's trouble?"
She shrugged, "Visions. I came to pick you and Percy up. Do you have your swords on you?"
I raised an eyebrow at her, "I go to public school. They are very much against carrying weapons on campus."
That earned me a horrified look, "You go hours a day unarmed?"
"I keep my knife in my shoe."
"You kept your swords on you in public during our quest last summer."
"People can see my weapons around here. The Mist works in mysterious ways. Believe me, if I could've had them on me during the school day, I would've. But I'd rather not get kicked out because the Mist malfunctions."
"Fair enough," Annabeth smiled at me, "It's good to see you."
I shot one back at her, "It's good to see you too Genius."
"Come on, let's go pick up your swords. Just because there's no danger surrounding Percy now does not mean that there won't be any later. I think I spotted some trouble around town."
~ ~ ~
Sally had already left for work when we arrived at the apartment. I'd written her a note about why I'd skipped school and left it where she usually put her car keys. I felt guilty since she'd been so nice to me this summer but I was sure she'd understand. She knew us demigods had to follow our guts or else we'd be in hot water.
We staked out Percy's school in the meantime. If we didn't have to interfere, that would be great. But if some sort of trouble went down, we had to be ready.
"How's high school life been?" Annabeth asked as we stood in an alleyway across from the school.
"It's been pretty good. Made a few friends," Our talking seemed kind of scripted. I dreaded what her obvious next question was.
"So you saw Luke?"
"Yeah, I saw him a few times actually. He keeps apologizing for stabbing me."
"At least he regrets it. Still not giving up on Kronos."
"Nope. How was seeing your dad?"
Annabeth opened her mouth to answer but the ground shook. An explosion rocked the middle school. That was our cue that something was definitely wrong. Unless the middle school was prone to explosions but I was certain Percy would've mentioned that to me.
We found a hole in the building big enough for us to climb through. Annabeth could've snuck into the school hours before with her Yankees cap but since I couldn't do that, we had decided to wait outside. With the new holes in the building, at least we didn't need to find a way to sneak in now.
As soon as we got into the gym, we surveyed the scene. Two guys that stood way taller than Tyson had their backs to us. They were holding dodgeballs of doom. Golden dust on the floor showed that there must've been more of them earlier. There were fires on one half of the gym behind Percy and Tyson. Frightened students were huddled in the corner, their eyes glued to the giants that were left over.
"Ah, Laistrygonians. Haven't faced those before," Annabeth said, taking out their knives.
"Should be fun," I agreed, unsheathing the sword that Poseidon had gifted to me last summer.
In unison, we stabbed our weapons into the two giants that were left. Almost instantly, they disintegrated into dust. As the particles fluttered to the ground, I saw Percy standing there, dumbfounded. His eyes shot from me to Annabeth and stayed on Annabeth. I smirked at the look on his face as I put my sword away.
Annabeth walked towards the bully on the ground. I took a step closer to Percy. He and I both watched as she hit the bully. I whispered, "Do you still keep her photo in your folder?"
"No," he denied but I could see right through his lie.
"Uh huh."
A loud groan caught our attention. Tyson laid against the wall, looking very dazed. Surprisingly, there was no blood on the ground or sign of any injuries. Maybe he had a concution from getting thrown?
I took a step forward to check on him but Annabeth grabbed my arm, "No time, the police will be here soon. Percy, meet us outside. And you better bring him too."
With that, we rushed through the hole we'd came in through and disappeared back into the alleyway. Percy must've been getting blamed for something he didn't do because he and Tyson were in the alleyway not too long after. Percy was covered in cuts and probably bruises too. Tyson still looked fine.
I pulled Percy into a hug, "I'm glad you're okay Shrimp."
"Thanks Cass," He hugged me back. We pulled away and he looked at Annabeth again.
She wrinkled her nose, "You smell like smoke."
"Well I did almost get blown up," He shrugged back.
"Where'd you find him?" She gestured to Tyson. I couldn't help but frown at the look of disgust on her face.
"He's my friend," Percy said slowly.
"Is he homeless?"
"Annabeth, what's going on?" I asked.
"He can hear you, you know," Percy added, "Why are you talking about him like he's not even here?"
"He can talk?" She asked in surprise.
"I talk. You are pretty," Tyson said shyly. He reached out to touch her blonde braids.
She slapped his hand away, "Gross!"
I started to scold Annabeth for being so rude but Percy noticed something pretty interesting first, "Tyson, your hands aren't even burned."
"Why would they be?" I asked in confusion.
"He was catching the dodgeballs of fire and throwing them back at... whatever those were. His hands should be severely burned from that."
"Of course his hands aren't burned. I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with him around," Annabeth said. What had she noticed about Tyson that we hadn't yet? Taking a quick scan of the boy, I came up with nothing.
"Laistry-I can't even say that. What would you call them in English?"
"Canadians. Now come on, we have to get out of here."
"Those were nothing like Canadians!" I called out as she started to walk away but she ignored me.
"How would you know what Canadians look like? You've never met one before," Percy muttered to me.
"That doesn't mean they're big, ugly giants. If they were, I'm sure we would've heard something about that," I said as we began to follow the daughter of Athena.
"Where are we going?" Percy asked.
"To camp. There's trouble going on there. There've been monsters chasing me from Virginia, trying to stop me from going back. Have you guys had many attacks?" Annabeth asked over her shoulder.
"None all year until today."
"None? But how... oh," her eyes flickered to Tyson.
"Oh? What's oh?" I asked, frustrated that she wasn't telling us what her problem with Tyson was.
She didn't give me an answer. Instead, Tyson raised his hand and started talking, "Canadians in the gym called Percy something... Son of the Sea God?"
"Again, they were not Canadians!"
Annabeth and Percy just exchanged looks before Percy started to explain, "Hey big guy, have you ever heard those old stories about Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena..."
"Yes."
"Well those gods are still alive and they're now in the U.S. And when they have kids with mortals, those kids are called half-bloods. Annabeth, Cass, and I are half-bloods. We're like heroes in training. And when monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what those giants were in the gym. Monsters."
Tyson didn't look confused or surprised. Instead, he just said, "Yes."
"So... you believe me?" Percy asked, his confusion clear on his face.
Tyson nodded, "And you are Son of the Sea God?"
"Yeah. Mine and Cass's dad is Poseidon. That makes us half siblings."
"But then-"
There were emergency vehicles coming closer and closer to our location. It wouldn't be much longer until we were found. With the extensive list of illegal activity wiped from Percy's record after Sally was found and everything was cleared up, I doubted Percy wanted to start it again.
"We don't have time for this. We'll talk in the taxi," Annabeth decided.
"A taxi all the way to camp? Do you know how much money that-" Percy tried but Annabeth cut him off.
"Trust me."
"What about Tyson? We can't just leave him here. Chances are the police will be after him too."
"Yeah, he definitely needs to come with us," Annabeth dug a coin out of her pocket, "Now about that taxi."
"Oh no," I groaned when I realized what she was doing, "Not those crazies."