A Damp Welcome

When they were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?" He asked.

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

"What's your problem?" Percy was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy-"

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "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?"

Y/N stepped in between before the fight escalated and said, "Annabeth, hey, he JUST got here and.." she looked behind at him, "you know about his mother. There's a lot to process. It will take him time to understand. And I don't think he knows anything about..."

Percy moved aside and said, "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."

"Yes."

"Then there's only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"They don't have souls, like you and me. 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."

Percy thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"

"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. 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," the girls said in unison.

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"

Annabeth glanced nervously at Y/N, as if she expected her to do something and just make him understand without pissing him off.

Y/N looked at her face and turned to Percy, "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. 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? 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." Percy pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. She whipped her head at Y/N's direction, but her friend just smiled in return and started explaining to the boy.

"You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or...your parent."

Y/N stared at him, waiting for him to pop up another question and ultimately to the point where she has to talk about her father. But he was still confused.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," Percy said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.

Even with Y/N. This time though she waited for Y/N to do it. She wanted someone to take her place instead and show the newcomers around.

Y/N chuckled and said, "Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?" He said, sounding defensive.

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say-"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me."

"No?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How-"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too." Annabeth said.

Percy tried to swallow his embarrassment. "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. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. 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 are."

"You sound like...you went through the same thing?"

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar." Y/N explained. Annabeth always sounded like a know-it-all narcissist. Most newcomers hate that about her.

"Ambrosia and nectar."

"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. Face it. You're a half-blood."

A half-blood. Percy was reeling with so many questions and he didn't know where to start. Y/N looked at him in concern.

Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"

They looked over. Clarisse from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward them. She had three other girls behind her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though it was kind of a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward the boy. "Who's this little runt?"

"Come on, why can't you just leave newbies alone?" Y/N said furrowing her eyebrows.

"Ofcourse you would know about getting left behind, ain't that right?" Clarisse leaned down at her face, as if challenging her to fight and make the first move.

"And you would know about being a disappointment right?" Y/N spat back.

Before Clarisse had the chance to kill Y/N Annabeth decided to intervene and introduce them. "Percy Jackson, meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

Percy blinked. "Like...the war god?"

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," he said, recovering from his wits. "It explains the bad smell."

Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

Y/N though was getting angrier, and when she got really mad and started shouting, her pitch really hurt others. Like, literally. She didn't have control over it yet. But if she started shouting at Clarisse now, it would turn into a full-scale fight. She was about to march over and grab her arm, when Annabeth looked at her painfully, and muttered, "Stay out of it, he's the new kid. I don't want you to face another punishment."

It was true. Y/N often got into a fight with Clarisse because of talking back to her, and naturally, everyone knew to stay away from Clarisse's temper. Luke and Annabeth tried to help but were only able to save her a few times. She was given extra duties, like cleaning everyone's dirty dishes, as punishment.

Percy handed Y/N the minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before he knew it, Clarisse had him by the neck and was dragging him toward a cinder-block building that he knew immediately was the bathroom. He was kicking and punching. Percy had been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged him into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and he was thinking-as much as he could think with Clarisse ripping his hair out- that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.

Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and Percy was trying to find the strength he'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.

"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed him towards one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."

Her friends snickered.

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers. Y/N couldn't bear to watch him and walked out of their cabin, huffing and humming a tune in anger. She was kind of glad that Clarisse never tried something like that on her, but still, watching a newbie get treated like that really grinded her gears. And the worst part is, all of these kids were demigods and weren't even a bit eager to help him out. She knew how it felt to be left out and helpless during meetings where Mr. D punished her while the Ares cabin snickered. She wanted to help him out. And maybe this time, she would get punished to do their dishes for a whole week but atleast her conscience would be clear.

As soon as Y/N barged in the cabin again, getting ready to fight when a huge gush of water slammed on her face and body. She wiped her face and looked in awe at the scenario before her.

The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet too, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at the new guy in shock.

Percy was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around him. He didn't have one drop of water on his clothes. Nothing.

He stood up, his legs were shaky.

Annabeth said, "How did you..."

"I don't know."

Y/N rushed to his side and held his arm, he tried to fix his posture and stand straight but he still looked shaky. "Just put your weight on me. We get it," she chuckled, "you're strong."

"No, I-I'm fine," Percy said to her, but let her hold his arm anyway. Maybe he was just a bit guilty of washing her up with toilet water along with others. They walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave him a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

Percy probably should have let it go, but he said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."

Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

Annabeth stared at him, and then looked at Y/N. Percy couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at him for dousing her. But Y/N knew what that look meant. And she couldn't help but smile at that.

"What?" he demanded. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," Annabeth said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."

"What?" Percy asked, turning to Y/N for some guidance.

"You'll understand. I'll explain it later," Y/N said walking towards cabin eleven with him, as Annabeth left to cabin six.

"Meanwhile," she said and as soon as Percy turned to her, she jumped up to hug him. He stood there dumbfounded with her little action. Kids were stopping to look at the two newbies hugging, so Y/N quickly released him and said, "That's payback for the toilet water."

"Oh," Percy said blushing. He never really hugged a girl before, except his mother. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"I'll call someone. They'll show you the boy's washroom," Y/N turned to leave and then looked back suddenly, "Percy!"

He looked up at her as she threw the Minotaur horn to him.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood!"