Disclaimer: I do not own this amazing franchise know as Percy Jackson. All rights go to Rick Riordan, the author of Percy Jackson, and his publishing company whom he probably sold the rights to. This story is written purely for my entertainment with nothing to do with profit or recognition. "I write what I want to write, I write what amuses me, it's totally for myself."- J.K. Rowling.
Definitions for odd words (eg. ostrobogulous, agelast, concinnous) can be found at the end. Translations for Greek are also found at the end.
POV of Maria Alba de los Reyes "Alba"
Have you ever heard that in some places, every girl is name Maria so people don't bother with first names and go straight to middle names? That's me, Maria Alba de los Reyes. The last three words there, de los Reyes, are my last name, for the record. I'm a member of the swim team and today was our first meet. My fellow members include Logan Moore, a blond boy with blue eyes from England in his senior year and also the captain of the team, Santiago de los Reyes, my brother with wavy black hair as smooth as silk and brown eyes who's in his junior year, Nomiki Sanna, a petite Greek girl with dark brown hair and light green eyes in her sophomore year, Bianca Conjehos, a average height girl with straight black hair and dark brown eyes in her senior year, and finally Percy Jackson, the Greek-American junior with unruly black hair and sea-green eyes. We're an odd lot, no denying it, but Percy Jackson is without a doubt the oddest of us all.
For starters he's really, really quiet. He's the one of the quietest people at Goode and his stepdad is also the best like English teacher, Paul Blofis. He's dyslexic and ADHD. Rumour is, he's been expelled from every school he went to before Goode. His former stepdad, Gabe Ugliano, disappeared off the face of the planet when he was twelve at the same time his mother revolutionized statues, creating a very ugly poker player known as "The Poker Player". When he was asked about his birth father he would get a misty look in his eyes, staring off into nothingness before answering that his father had been an important business man, working in the trades of the ocean, who had been lost at sea shortly before he was born. He'd always say that his dad wasn't dead, rather missing to return home soon. He didn't have many friends outside of the swim team, just a honey-blonde-haired girl with sky blue eyes named Kayla Adlaw. Kayla was a concinnous girl, always speaking in words that sounded very pretty. Anyone else who spoke in the same way as Kayla did would have been considered ostrobogulous, like me, yet Kayla managed to pull it off. Did I neglect to mention he disappeared for almost a year?
I grinned as my fellow sophomore, Nomiki, punched my shoulder. Percy was unlocking the door to his house at the edge of Central Park. He fiddled with the key for a moment before slipping it back into the pocket of his plum coloured jacket. He zipped up the pocket with the bright orange zipper. Another odd thing about Percy- he always had both purple and orange on him somewhere.
"Mom? Paul?" He called inside as he forced the door open. "We're here!" There was a faint crash from inside and a muffled curse that did not sound like a kid.
"Jason?!" Percy's voice was uncharacteristically loud as he spotted a blond boy's head. The boy, Jason, looked to be slightly taller than Percy with electric blue eyes and military cut blond hair, a small scar at the corner of his lip giving him a less serious look. "Dude! What are you doing here?"
Jason rolled his eyes and grinned, the scar at his lip stretching a small curve. "It's your first swim meet. You have the whole team over. You think Ms. Jackson-Blofis can handle making food for that many?! Hazel n' 'Beth are helping her."
Percy raised an eyebrow, gazes back at the boy. "Don't let Annabeth here you call her that. She'd actually kill you. And she and Thal's are here?"
"And Nico."
"Wait. He's actu-"
I rolled my eyes, interrupting the dark-haired swimmer. "Well this is all heartwarming, but care to introduce us, Percy?" The green-eyed boy rolled his eyes at me.
"Guys, this is my cousin Jason. Jason, meet my swim team, Logan," ("Hey," Logan said), "Alba," (I raised a hand. "Sup?"), "her big bro Tiago," (Ago nodded with a "Hi!"), "Nomiki," ("Pleased to meet you"), "and Bianca," ("Hi, Jason").
"A friend of Percy's is a friend of mine," Jason said with another grin, gesturing us onwards. "Come on, everyone's in the living room."
Percy hopped after his cousin with a cheerful grin on his face. The rest of the team followed him, perturbed. "Come on!"
Santiago walked next to me as we slipped down the hall, curious to meet Percy's friends and family. In an average sized room with a fire in one corner, TV playing a hockey game, was a group of teens. The tallest was that Jason boy who was around an inch taller than Percy. Just an inch shorter than Percy was a blond girl with stormy eyes. She looked to be the same age as Percy, seventeen, while Jason looked to be closer to sixteen. Appearing a year younger than Jason was a girl of five and a half feet with punk styled jet black hair streaked with an electric blue that matched her hair. She was dressed entirely in black. A fourth, final boy was black-haired and dark eyed with an olive complexion. He was slightly younger than the black-haired girl and appeared to be an agelast. A final girl of thirteen or so with dark skin, curly brown hair and gold eyes was snuggled up to the fifteen year old girl who seemed to be telling her a story. Were they all related to Percy?
Percy's face split into a huge grin when he saw them. "Yia!" He called. "Pos Eisai?"
"Kalí̱. Esý ti les?" the blond girl replied with a grin.
"Kalí̱," Percy agreed.
The team was exchanging confused glances except for Nomiki. She had a wide grin pasted to her face. "Geia sas! Miláte elli̱niká?" My eyes darted between the group of teens and Nomiki. It was clear the Greek girl understood the conversation. The black-haired boy of fourteen or so raised an eyebrow, looking back at Percy.
"Me tous theoús, af̱tí̱ eínai elli̱nikí̱!*"
Nomiki let out a wide grin and nodded very quickly so that her wet, auburn hair bounced on her shoulders. She glanced over her shoulder at us before smiling apologetically. "Sorry guys, I just don't get to speak much Greek, so when I can speak it to people who understand, I'm really happy."
"We're in a roomful of diglots," I muttered.
Percy strode forward, enveloping the blond girl in a hug and pecking her cheek before pulling away and hugging the blond boy. Pulling away once again, he enveloped the smallest girl in a hug, ruffling her hair in the process. He turned to the dark-haired girl of fifteen and gave her a quick hug before punching her shoulder and finally enveloping the agelast boy in a hug and ruffling his hair to which he received a scowl.
"Team, meet my family. Jason is my cousin but you've already met him. The fifteen-year-old is Thalia, Jason's sister, Nico is the dark-haired boy and Hazel is his little sister. Annabeth is my girlfriend. Cousins and Annabeth, meet my swim team. Logan, Alba, Tiago, Nomiki and Bianca." The small boy, Nico, flinched at the last name. "Sorry Nico," Percy quickly apologized, ruffling the small boy's hair. He scowled once again.
"What?" Tall Bianca asked, tipping her tanned head to the side. "Wait, wait, wait. Percy, you said your girlfriend? Is that why you keep turning down Penelope, Alyssa and Drazel?"
The blond girl, Annabeth, looked incredulous. "You know a girl named Drazel? Her parents do know they called her a slut at birth, right? I'd certainly hope so."
My jaw hit the ground with a thunk. I was about to say 'coads-nigs!' when something more intelligent came to mind. "You... you know weird words! Victorious! Someone who is as crazy as I! It is very nice to meet you, Annabeth!" I shook her hand vigorously with a huge grin plastered to my face. "Ichane, I do not meet many people as crazy as I."
Annabeth had a wide grin on her face as she shook my hand in response. "I just like to know everything possible." There were snorts from Percy and his cousins.
"Understatement of the century," Nico muttered emotionlessly.
Glancing back at the dark-haired boy, Annabeth responded. "Well at least I'm not Malcom. Have you seen him on a word rampage?"
Thalia went very pale. "May the gods above save us," she said sorrowfully.
"Percy? Kids?" A woman called from the next room, not leaving me time to ponder the use of 'god' as a plural. Clearly this group was not monotheistic. "Dinners ready! We made spaghetti and meatballs! Do you kids want to eat out there and watch the game?" It was a unanimous vote; we wanted to watch the game.
"He shoots he scores!" The TV blared and Thalia let out a whoop of joy.
"Go Islanders!"
I rolled my eyes. Hockey was a pointless, violent and idiotic sport played only by avatrols. Football was a much better sport, far more civilized.
As Percy and his cousins plopped down on a couch, inviting the team to sit down too, they exchanged glances before all there eyes fell on Percy. He sighed.
"Jernie! Akolouthó̱ tous trópous ti̱s paliás. Den ypárchoun theoí, allá ekeína ti̱s paliás;̱ Eímai Elli̱nída**," he chanted in another language. Nomiki shot them an odd look.
It was only then that I realized something. Percy Jackson was even more ostrobogulous than I had first expected.
*"Hi! How are you?" "Good. How about you?" "Good." "Hello! You speak Greek?" "By the gods, she's Greek!" Apologies if the Greek is incorrect, I used google translate.
**"I follow the ways of the old. There are no gods but those of the old; I am Greek."
Concinnous: Neat and eloquent"
Ostrobogulous: Bizarre, unusual or strange
Agelast: A person who never laughs
Diglots: People who are bilingual
Coads-nigs: An expression of surprise
Ichane: An expression of sorrow or 'alas'
Jernie: "I renounce God"
Avatrol: A bastard