I woke up in someone's arms with bright light shining through my eyelids. I hid my face from the light and heard a few low chuckles. I opened my eyes to find my face buried in someone's chest. I pulled back slightly and blushed when I saw Jake smiling down at me. I heard other people snicker as I squirmed away from Jake, squinting at them through the bright light.
"Thought you said he wasn't your boyfriend, Mira," Conner taunted, smirking.
"Yeah, what happened to 'just best friends'," Travis teased, making quotation marks with his fingers. I blushed furiously and got up.
"We're not dating," I hissed.
"Suuuure," they answered. I just glared at them. Suddenly the cabin door was thrown open and Percy marched inside.
"Mira! I've been looking for you everywhere! Where have you been?" He almost shouted. I winced, my ears still sensitive to sound after just waking up.
"Here," I said nervously. I saw Percy glaring over my shoulder and glanced back at Jake who had gotten up to stand next to me. "I didn't mean to worry you, I just couldn't sleep and it didn't feel right leaving him here," I muttered, looking back at Percy. He sighed, letting his shoulders relax.
"It's okay, I just worried when I got up and you weren't there," he said. I smiled slightly. It's sweet that he worried, even though we just met. He's already that protective older brother.
I felt Jake put a hand on my lower back. "Don't worry man, she'll always be safe with me, I promise," Jake said, causing more snickers from the other kids who received a glare from Percy.
"I don't know if I trust you yet," Percy replied.
"Percy," I whined. "He's a good guy, I swear." Percy simply rolled his eyes.
"Doesn't matter. It's time for breakfast now anyways. Come on Mira," he said. I sighed and followed him out the door, shooting an apologetic look at Jake.
"I'll talk to him," I mouthed. He nodded.
After a quick stop to our cabin to get dressed and attempt to look somewhat decent, I walked with Percy in the direction of the dining pavilion. As we crossed the green grass I asked, "why don't you like him?"
"It's not that I don't like him. I just don't like that he is all over my little sister," he shrugged. I blushed.
"He's not all over me! We've always been like that. We're best friends!" I defended. Percy gave me a knowing look.
"Yeah, sure. You keep thinking that," he smirked. I shoved his shoulder hard, causing him to stumble a bit as he laughed and put his hands up defensively. "Okay, okay. I won't say it again," he chuckled. As I turned away I heard him mutter, "but you know it's true." I stuck my tongue out at him and he stuck his tongue out back. Eventually this progressed into a tickle war before turning into a chase. I bolted off towards the dining pavilion, trying to avoid his outstretched hands that seemed intent on tickling my sides.
I managed to reach the dining pavilion without him catching me and we both sat down at our table next to each other laughing.
"You're pretty fast," he said after our laughter faded away.
"Got those strong legs from swimming," I shrugged. He nodded in understanding.
"So have you figured out your powers yet?" He asked. I gave him a questioning look. "Judging by that, I guess not. Don't worry, I'll teach you some stuff. It took me a while to figure it out without anyone to teach me," he said. I smiled brightly at him.
"Aw, thanks bro," I grinned. I saw his cheeks turn a faint pink as I hugged him. "You're pink," I laughed.
"Pfft am not," he defended, looking the other way so I couldn't see his blush. I laughed again, shrugging.
"Whatever you say," I said in my best sing-song voice. Suddenly it grew quiet as all eyes turned on me. My eyes widened slightly as I tried to make myself as small as possible, not liking the sudden attention. "Why does everyone keep staring at me?"
It was Annabeth who answered my question, standing up from the Athena table to come sit across from Percy and I, "your voice."
I raised my eyebrow at her, tilting my head slightly, "gonna need to be a little more specific." By this time people had stopped staring and returned to their previous conversations.
She sighed. "When you sang, it was like a Siren's call," (hehe that's the name of a perfume at Hot Topic. It's my favorite.) she stated, matter-of-factly.
"Siren? Like evil, sailor-drowning creature things?" I asked, recalling something I had learned from reading The Odyssey in school. She nodded.
"It may be one of your powers. Depending how you use it, you may be able to convince people to do things for you, similar to charmspeak. That's an Aphrodite power," she explained. I nodded slowly, starting to understand. "Until you can control it, I recommend not using that sing-song voice." I nodded again and she smiled, "good." She then turned her attention to Percy, "you might want to find out what her other powers are before something bad happens," she warned. "If just using her voice made everyone shut up she must be pretty powerful." I scowled slightly. I hate when people talk about me like I'm not here. Percy gave me a reassuring smile.
"Yeah okay," he answered easily. "After breakfast then?" He asked, glancing at me.
"Sounds good," I replied.
"Great," he smiled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a nice breakfast of pancakes and fruit, Percy and I made our way to the beach. I inhaled deeply at the familiar scent of salt water and smiled, forcing myself not to go sprinting into the water. Percy seemed to be having a similar reaction, but couldn't control himself. I watched him race off into the water and dive in. I laughed as his head broke the surface a few yards away, somehow completely dry.
"The water's great," he shouted.
"How would you know? You're not even wet!" I yelled back, hearing my voice echo over the water's surface.
"Oh yeah!" He laughed, ducking back underwater and resurfacing with wet hair.
"How do you do that?" I wondered aloud.
"Just think about staying dry," he responded. I nodded and stepped into the water, focusing on keeping the water off of my skin. I waded deeper and deeper until I was fully submerged, I swam to the surface and ran a hand through my hair. To my surprise it was completely dry. I gave Percy a huge smile which he mirrored perfectly. "You're a quick learner," he said.
"I try," I shrugged.
"Have you tried breathing underwater?" He asked.
"We can do that?" I almost shouted in excitement. He chuckled and nodded. "I never knew! I always just automatically held my breath." He nodded again in understanding and dove under the water, grabbing my ankle and pulling me under. I gasped, startled and unprepared, only to realize I didn't feel any water in my lungs. I had gasped underwater, yet I didn't actually breathe in water! I gave him a thumbs up, "I can breathe." My eyes widened as I realized I just said something underwater without it sounding all garbled. I squealed with excitement and Percy immediately covered his ears.
"Dam, your squeals are higher pitched than a dolphin!" He exclaimed. I gave him an apologetic look. "Let's go up and see what you can do on land," he said, starting for the surface. I followed behind him.
We both stepped out of the water, completely dry. Somehow Percy had managed to reverse getting his hair wet without me noticing.
"So, you being my sister and all, I'm pretty sure you can do the same things I can, but we're about to find out," Percy said, reaching a hand out towards the water. A small sphere of clear water rose to the surface and hovered over it. "Okay, now you try. Imagine the water bending to your will," he said. I nodded not-so-confidently and stretched my hand out toward the water like he had done. I imagined the water forming a sphere and rising up like his had, but nothing happened. I tried again. Still nothing. I sighed and let my hand fall to my side. "Hm maybe we should try a different approach," Percy said. I saw him smirk and my eyes widened. That devilish look definitely meant he was up to something. I saw his hand move toward me and looked up to see his water ball hovering over my head. "Stop it if you can," he said, letting his hand fall and dropping the water ball. I instinctively threw my hands over my head and the water ball froze. Literally froze. It had turned into solid ice and stopped in midair. I glanced from the ice ball to Percy, who had his mouth slightly open. "How did you do that?" He asked.
I looked at him in confusion, "I have no idea. You can't do that?" I asked. He shook his head. I grinned triumphantly. "Haha!" I laughed at him. He made a face at me, causing me to laugh harder. The ice ball fell to the ground, narrowly missing my head. Oops. Lost my focus.
"I thought only Khione could freeze things," Percy said. I shrugged.
"Ice is water," I said. He gave me an 'I guess so' face.
"Any other powers you might have that I don't?" He asked.
"How should I know?" I answered his question with another question.
"Fair point," he said, turning back towards the water and forming another water ball. This time he flung it at me without warning and I automatically made a fist as if to punch it without even realizing it. The water ball disappeared before my eyes, turning into steam. I frowned in confusion. "Heat?" He said questioningly. My lips parted in a small 'o' (lol that looks like a face XD). That made sense.
"Sweet!" I shouted, fist pumping the air. Percy rolled his eyes. "You're just jealous," I joked.
"Whatever," he said sassily.
As my excitement wore off I realized how tired I had become. Changing the stages of water is a lot of work. "Hey, Perce? Can we be done for now? I'm tired," I said. He nodded.
"Let's go up to the cabin. You can take a nap," he said. We walked back to the cabin side by side. He opened the door and I walked inside as he closed the door behind me. I climbed into my bed and snuggled into my pillow, closing my eyes. I felt the mattress dip slightly under someone's weight and opened my eyes to see Percy laying next to me. "You don't mind right?" He asked. I shook my head and he smiled, pulling me to his chest. I closed my eyes again and fell into a peaceful sleep.
A/N: yaaaaay. Over 1800 words! Kind of fluffy, but the powers were important, so not too fluffy. Hope you liked it. Comment anything you want to see in the future. I'm here to give my readers what they want, though I do know a big thing that will be much later in the book. You are probably gonna hate me. Aaaanyways, thanks for reading!
-nocturnal_writer