I'm so sorry guys. It was brought to my attention my the most amazing person on this sight, Engineer4Ever, that there is something seriously wrong with this update if it is to follow Sea of Monsters and lead into Titan's curse. My brain malfunctioned and forgot the winter solstice is before Christmas. Making this one-shot kind of confusing, and sort of screws up my plans. So I'm revising this one-shot so that it'll hopefully make sense. There won't be much change at all, just tweaking a few things. It was actually brought to my attention quite a while ago, but I'm been both really busy and really lazy to fix it till now. But on the bright side, after this is fixed, I'm uploading the Titan's Curse Rewrite! So, yay!

Happy Holidays everyone! Here's our Hero's Christmas special!

P.S. this takes place the school year following the Sea of Monsters

"Are you sure you don't want to come spend break with me and my family?" Liz asked for the thousandth time.

I smiled at her as I placed a few shirts in my suitcase. "Yes, Lizzy, I'm sure."

Bex hopped on my bed, sprawling herself out across my neatly organized things. "How about you come with me to London? It's fantastic there, I swear. You'll have a great time."

I laughed, pushing her hair out of my suitcase. "Guys, seriously. I love you, but I can't spend winter break with you. I'm sorry."

"But where will you even go?" Lizzy fussed. "Is there a foster family taking you in this year?"

"Or are you going with Mrs. Morgan to her in-laws' Christmas?" Bex asked.

"An old friend of my mom's actually. She sent me a letter this year, asking if I wanted to spend the holidays with her."

Bex sat up. "That's unusual. Why hasn't she had you over for Christmas before?"

"She's not exactly rolling in money. She can barely keep herself afloat, let alone get me a bus ticket to New York. She's been saving money, I guess."

Liz came over and started folding my socks. "That's sweet of her. Do you know her well?"

I shrugged. "Haven't seen her in years, but she used to babysit Percy and I. She was cool back then. Let us stay up late. I'm excited to see her again."

"But you'll call if you get bored, right?" Bex asked, unfolding a pair of my socks, just to annoy me. "Or if something goes wrong. One of us can come hang out or save you, or something."

I pushed her off the bed, chuckling. "Don't be a brat. I'm going to be fine. Anyway, who's to say I'm not sick of you two? With all the nagging, and overprotectiveness. It's enough to drive a girl nuts."

"Do you know the address," Liz asked. "I might send a Christmas card or something."

"I'll give you the address." I scribbled down our address. I was hesitant to give it out, but I'd rather hand it over than have them digging to find it.

Rachel knocked on the door, peaking inside. "Cammie, are you about ready?"

I nodded, letting Liz put in all my folded socks before closing it up. "Just finished packing. I'll be down in a minute. Thanks for driving me to the bus station."

Rachel smiled. "Not a problem, sweetheart. I'll be heading out right after I drop you off."

I hugged the girls goodbye one last time, wishing them a merry Christmas, before rushing down to my waiting car.

The bus ride up to New York was uneventful, to my greatest pleasure. It was a Christmas miracle! What was even better was what I saw coming off the bus.

"Percy!" I cried, running up to him.

He had a big bright smile on his face as he caught me. "Hey, little sis," he chirped, squeezing me mercilessly.

"Uggg…Percy, too tight!"

"Deal with it. I haven't seen you in months!"

"Ditto, buddy!"

He did let go a while later, but continued to hold my hands. He looked taller, even though it had only been a couple of months since I'd last seen him. He looked almost exactly the same, except for that little bit. His nose and cheeks were painted a lovely red because of the cold.

"Hey, where's mom?" I asked, shivering. Virginia hadn't gotten snow yet, but it looked like New York just got hit.

"She's at home. I told her you were coming home late tonight. She's going to cry seeing you early."

"What a horrible son you are. Making your mother cry."

He pulled something out of his back pocket. It was a blue stalking cap with a fuzzy puffball on top. "Here, mom got you a hat."

I laughed as he pulled it on my head. "I'll tell her thanks when we get home."

Pulling off the scarf around his neck, he wrapped it around mine. "I was just holding on to it for you. This is from me."

I winked at him. "It looked good on you."

"Mom was worried you'd freeze up here. She checked to see if you'd gotten any snow down there, and was afraid you'd go into temperature shock or something. I think she's got all the makings for a yeti in the closet."

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, stirring me over to get my bags. "I wish she wouldn't worry so much. A little cold can't get me down."

"She's going to worry regardless, you know that. I just know she rather stress out about the cold rather than monsters and that sort of stuff."

I nodded in understanding. Anyone who says my mom isn't tuff can go stuff it, 'cause that lady is made of nails and steel, with fuzzy warm packaging. Not to mention, she's the greatest woman to ever live. And boy does she make a mean blue chocolate chip cookie.

I took a deep breath, taking in the smells of New York. Not always pretty, but it was home, and I was glad to be back, with Percy's arm around me. I smiled up at him. "It's good to be home."

"Hard semester?" he asked.

"No, I just missed you guys. It may be spy school, but that doesn't replace any of this." I snuggled in deeper, resting my head on his shoulder, which was suddenly several inches taller. "Gods, either Liz's shrinking serum worked, or you've grown."

He smirked down at me. "Well you're always saying that this Liz of yours is a genius."

I laughed as we reached the steps of the apartment building. "I'll have to let her know it worked!" Percy held the door open as I slid inside.

"Hey Eddie," he called out to the superintendent of the building.

"Hey Percy," Eddie called back, not looking up.

"Hey Eddie!" I chirped, smiling widely at the man.

"Hey Cam…" Suddenly he seemed to realize I didn't live there anymore. He looked up, smiling widely. "Well, if it isn't Cammie Jackson! Back from higher education."

"Not that high of education, but it's a step. How've you been Eddie?"

He shrugged. "Well enough. The place hasn't fallen apart yet."

"Surprising considering this one lives here," I teased, hooking a thumb in Percy's direction.

We said goodbye, and headed upstairs to see mom. I was racing up the stairs. Mom had sent letters, and I was always quick to reply, but I missed her. Her hugs, her smell, the way she stroked my hair, running her hand through it. Giving her up was hard, even with all her support.

"Cam, she's not going anywhere," Percy laughed, "you don't need to run!"

"What, can't keep up?" I taunted.

"Of course I can!"

"Then cut the chatter! Move those feet! You get her the rest of the year; I only get her for a few weeks."

Finally reaching the apartment, I hesitated to enter. I suddenly felt lost. Like I was in unfamiliar territory. I hadn't been home in months, and now I felt like a stranger outside my own house. I wasn't sure exactly what to do.

Percy reached for the handle. "How about walk in." He turned the nob and pushed me inside. I glared at him, though my gratitude showed through.

"Percy? You home already?"

Percy smiles at me. His hand on my back stirred me into the living room where mom is standing, decorating the tree. She's the image of beauty, even in her holiday sweats. Her hair is tumbling down her back, sporting the curls I inherited from her. Her eyes glow with happiness, making everything look insanely bright. She floats wherever she goes, a true queen in her kingdom. She's a sight for sore eyes, I'll tell you that.

She turns to smile at Percy, but pauses when she sees me standing there.

"Cammie?" she breathes, as though she can't quite believe it's me.

I give her a small smile, waving. "Hey, mom."

She immediately drops the ordainments in her hands and runs over to me. "Oh, Cammie, sweetheart!" she cries, pulling me into her arms. "Oh, sweetie, I missed you. I missed you so much!"

I squeezed back, pressing my face into the crook of her neck. "I missed you too, mommy."

We stood like that for a long time, her just stroking my hair. When she finally pulled back, she gave Percy a scolding look.

"You said she wasn't going to be home till tonight," she said.

Percy shrugged, not looking the least bit sorry. "Merry Christmas," was all he said.

"I haven't even gone out to rent the movies…and I don't have the stuff for crazy bake." Mom shook her head. "I was going to go out and do that today before you got here."

"That's okay," I told her. "Let's go now."

"How about we finish decorating the tree first?" she smiled, flattening my hair.

We have a sort of tradition at the Jackson house when it comes to Christmas. We go out and rent some Christmas movies—you know, the good ones. Home Alone, the Polar Express, The Santa Clause. And while we're watching those, we crazy bake. Basically the concept is that mom looks up like twenty different cookie recipes, all completely different, and we bake a batch of each. We've made our original chocolate chip. We've made candy cane chunk. Peanut butter crunch and red velvet with chocolate frosting. We've made pink sugar cookies, and every color of the cool aid rainbow cookies. We're willing to try it all. In fact, most of them aren't even that good. Horrible in fact. But it's just so fun we don't even consider stopping.

And baking is no easy task in our house. Percy makes sure of that. He's always licking the spoon, dipping his grubby fingers into the bowl. There always at least one flour fight a year, which ends in the two of us becoming as white as ghosts. It's a waste of flour, but mom never stops us.

It was almost surreal having mom tuck me into bed. Sure, I'm a little old to be getting tucked in at night, but I let myself indulge in the pleasure of being home again. She kisses the top of my head, whispering "I love you", before moving onto Percy.

"Goodnight, kiddos," she said, turning the light off. "See you tomorrow."

I sigh contently, snuggling into my comforters.

"Good to be home?" Percy asked.

"Best Christmas present I'm going to receive," I smiled, letting my eyes drift shut.

He snorted. "You underestimate my skill. Trust me, I got you the best gift ever."

"Whatever loser."

"Jerk."

"Love you, Percy."

"You too, Cam."

The next day, mom woke up early to make blue pancakes. I was used to waking up early, even on breaks, so I got up and helped her. Percy came out half an hour later, a strange look on his face.

"Hey, bro," I said, stirring up some more pancakes. "What's up?"

"I just got an Iris message from Grover," he said slowly. "He needs our help picking up a possible demi-god."

Both mom and me turn to him.

"You've got to be kidding me?"

Percy shook his head. "I wish I was."

"But it's almost Christmas!"

"Cammie," mom soothed, placing a hand on my shoulder. "You need to go help him. He's your friend."

"Well, yeah, but the timing…"

"We'll just celebrate early," mom suggested.

"It shouldn't take us too long, to do," Percy said. "He wants us there tomorrow. Should only take a day."

I gave him a look. "When have things ever gone according to plan for us?"

"Come on, you two," mom said. "We're going to hope for the best, but turn today into our Christmas, just in case. What do you say?"

My brother and I shared a look before shrugging.

"Better safe than sorry, I guess."

Mom insisted we eat before opening presents. Percy and I quickly consumed our abnormally colored breakfasts, and launched ourselves in front of the tree.

Mom laughed. "You two are nuts."

"Yeah, yeah," I waved off. "Can we open our presents now?"

"Knock yourselves out."

Percy and I lunged towards the presents at the same time, bashing our heads together, nearly 'knocking ourselves out'. We glared as we rubbed our heads, reaching for our presents one at a time.

Mom got me all kinds of James Bond and Buffy the Vampire Slayer merchandise, along with stamps and cool stationary to write home with. Percy had framed an old baby picture of ours, my favorite one. He had his arms wrapped around me in his chubby toddler arms, innocently smiling up at the camera. I looked completely confused as to what was going on, but look with mild curiosity. There was a broken baby cake in front of us that used to said "Happy 1st Birthday Percy and Cammie". In my fist I held a chunk of Percy's name, and the rest was on my face. Both our faces were stained with blue frosting, and it was all in our hair and up our noses. Mom was in the back, holding us up, smiling that sweet old smile of hers. I started crying, knowing how much thought he put into this. He could never give me a resent picture of the two of us, seeing as no one was supposed to know. But this picture I could set on my nightstand and look at every night before going to bed.

There were three more presents under the tree. Mom looked confused at to where they came from.

"Did you bring them home?" she asked me.

I shook my head.

"Percy?"

"No."

I reached over and took the card of the top. Opening it, I read the cute little Santa card inside.

"Dear Cammie,

I just want to say Merry Christmas to you and your family! There were a couple of girls over here who were very concerned your presents wouldn't reach you on time. So I offered to take them to you for them. They happily turned them over to me. I hope your Christmas is wonderful, and wish you and your family the best. Hopefully see you in the new year.

—Sincerely, Vanessa

"Well that's sweet of her, thinking of you on Christmas," Mom said.

"Yeah, now open them up," Percy pushed. "I want to see what's inside."

I took the pretty one wrapped in bubblegum pink ribbon and cute wrapping paper with elves dancing on it. Ripping that adorable paper to shreds, I carefully opened the little brown box inside.

"Oh, cool, bubble wrap," I teased, shooting Percy a wink.

"Dude, the excitement in killing me."

I nudged him with my toe. Reaching in again, I grasped something smooth and sleek. I pulled out a pair of black rimmed glasses.

"What an odd present," Mom said, as I handed them over to her to inspect.

"Maybe there's a card inside to explain," Percy suggested.

And indeed, there was a card at the very bottom, written in Liz's tiny neat handwriting.

Hey Cammie!

Just as an explanation,

These are the new translator glasses I've been working on.

They bring in words and project a translated

Greek version onto the lenses so that you can see.

Obviously, only you'll be able to see the translation.

But when you take them out into the sun,

they can work as sunglasses as well!

Merry Christmas!

-Liz

"Dude!" I hissed, taking them back. I placed them on my face and took the book nearest to me, opening to the first page. It took a second, but then words started appearing in front of my eyes on the lenses. "Oh my gods! It works! Like actually works!"

"What works?" Percy asked.

I snap them on his face, and shove a book at him. He looks down at it, waiting for something to happen, when suddenly his head jerks back in surprise.

"No way!" he exclaimed. "That's amazing!"

I show them to my mom, explaining what they were. She became so excited, trying them on herself.

"Okay, I'd love to see that get topped," Percy said, handing me my next gift.

"Do not underestimate Bex," I warned him.

I opened this one to find a note with a black leather jacket underneath.

"Cool," I said, sliding it on. "I've always wanted a leather jacket."

"What's the note say?"

Hello, Cam

So I got you, by far, the coolest jacket you'll ever get the pleasure of wearing.

Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of your very own spy jacket.

Enjoy figuring out all its perks.

-Bex

"I see trouble with this one," I muttered, handing the note around.

I slid my hand into the right pocket, feeling for something inside. It all seemed fairly normal to me, except for the small catch in the material. Figuring there had to be something weird with it, I pulled on the catch, tearing it open, revealing a small hidden pocket. Inside there was a paper thin metal disk. I took it out and pressed the tiny button on the back. It lit up to reveal itself as a GPS, and it knew my exact location at that very moment.

"Dude, that's awesome," Percy said.

I checked the left hand pocket and found another secret pocket, this time loaded with napotine patches, emergency duct tape, and super strong rope, probably used to tie somebody up. Percy and I continued running our fingers over the jacket for an hour, finding little catches where hidden goods lay. We found lock picking tools in the bottom lining, where if my hands were tied up behind my back, I'd find them to be most useful. In the collar, there was the world's tiniest gasmask. Behind the sown on 'label', there was currency for over fifty different countries. I'm sure there was more to the jacket—without a doubt, actually, but we decided to give up when that was all our search came up with in an hour.

"One last present," Mom said, handing me the silver wrapped one.

I read the label with my new glasses on. "This one is addressed to all of us, from Madam Dabney," I said.

"Then I get to open it," Percy said, taking it from me. He wasted no time ridding the package of its wrapping, and tossing the top to the side. He looked down inside and his mouth dropped.

"What is it," mom asked, taking it from him. Her eyes widened.

"What?" I asked. "What is it?"

Mom reached down and grabbed a handful of what was inside. Coins clanged together as she brought up a hand full of golden drachmas.

"Cam, is your teacher rich or something?" Percy asked me, taking a coin.

I crawled over and looked in the box myself, knowing I had to of seen wrong. But my eyes did not change what I saw. Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful golden drachmas, shimmering in the early morning light.

"Where could she have gotten all of these?" Percy asked.

Mom took out the letter addressed to her, and read it to herself. Mom slowly started to tear up, and covered her face with her hand, sobbing silently.

"Mom, what did she say?" I asked her.

"She said she had no more use for these coins anymore, and thought she better give them to somebody who did," mom cried. "She's given us enough drachmas that Percy and I can call you every day for the rest of the year, and the year after that. She's even talked to the Headmistress and has gotten you a two hour time period where we can talk to each other without having to worry about someone walking in on us."

"How'd she pull that off with Mrs. Morgan?" I wondered. "Rachel doesn't even know…"

"She explained it as to help you with your dyslexia. A sort of extra study hall where she would read you your homework." Mom chuckled softly. "Which she still fully expects you to have your homework completely done every day, even if this 'study hall' isn't actually going to be used for school work. Especially now with your new glasses."

I fingered the glasses that still sat on my nose, and smiled down at everything I had gotten this year. Hugging the picture Percy gave me, I let my mom wrap her arms around me and Percy.

"Best Christmas, ever," I muttered, looking down at the drachmas.

"Your teacher is the bomb," Percy whispered, clutching me closer to him.

Thus endith, the Jackson family Christmas Special. I hope you all enjoyed it. I left the jacket thing open, so if you want to suggest a spy item that could be useful, I'm sure it'll fit somewhere. Cool little new gadgets for upcoming adventures, if you know what I mean ;) I know you guys wish I'd update this more often, but I've been hard at work trying to plan the next book out so I'm not floundering like in the last two rewrites. By the way, this one is set in the second year at Gallagher, just because I wanted to give Cammie presents from her friends that would be super helpful for books that haven't been rewritten yet. In fact, I might just move on to the second year. Don't know yet. Tell me what you guys thing.

Well, anyway, hope you all have happy and safe holidays! Thanks for reading