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Chapter 7:

I become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

At this line, everyone laughed for a long time.

"I'd never thought I'd see the day when Hermione made a bathroom joke!" Ron said in one breath before laughing again.

"You guys will love this part," Elaina said after the kids calmed down.

"You were there?" Harry asked her.

"Yep," she replied. "Saw the whole thing and I get to hear the situation through Percy's eyes." And not Clarisse's.

Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I wascareful not to walk behind him.

Some kids sniggered.

"I wonder why he doesn't want to walk behind him." Luna asked herself. That made the kids stifle laughter into their robe sleeves.

I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving DayParade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.

Everyone was cracking up now

"Oh now I know why Percy ran up to Chiron's front side when he trotted too fast." Elaina realized.

We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."

"Give the kid a bloody break, why don't you?" Harry commented, knowing what it's like to have a famous reputation.

Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.

"Did he?" Ron asked Elaina.'

"Uh, No!" Elaina was wondering what was wrong with Weasley.

I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky bluewith white trim, like an upscale seaside resort.

When we go to the camp I'll tell my parents there's a mansion there. Then they'll let me go! Draco thought evilly. He hoped his little plan will be successful.

I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane ontop when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable.Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.

"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.

"Yeah, what's up there?" Cho asked Elaina. She had been quiet the past few minutes.

"You'll find out," the Slytherin replied.

He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"Not technically," Elaina muttered.

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.

"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he wasaround. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so theygrew strawberries instead.

"How crazy did they get?" Hermione asked Elaina.

"Very." Elaina stated simply, hoping that would please her.

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.

"Poor Grover," Luna said with sympathy. "He did a good job getting Percy into camp, so he should get a second chance."

"Um…" Elaina began to tell the tale of Thalia, daughter of Zeus getting escorted to camp by Grover along with Annabeth and Luke, but she would let the book explain. "Never mind. Go on, Granger."

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle.

"Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that, didn't he?" Ginny asked.

"But he did that!"

"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and theCouncil of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success.After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother.And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. Thecouncil might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

"Council…."

"The Council of Cloven Elders." Elaina said. "Heads of the Satyrs."

"Oh,"

I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"

"Didn't Loony ask that a while ago?" Draco realized.

"Oh yeah," Cho recalled. "I remember now."

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age...

"There's the Loon's answer," Draco said.

"Don't you dare call her Loony, Mr. Richey- Rich.

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

"The hell…."

"I have no clue,"

"What! And he's in sixth grade?"

"A twenty-eight year-old satyr can blend in with first years?" Harry wondered aloud. "How is that even humanly possible?"

"No idea…" Ginny assured.

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"Oh how horrible," Luna said with worry.

"That's horrible."

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, andnot yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhapsnow he will find some other career..."

"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"

"Yeah, Troy, what happened the first time?" Ron asked with a pushy tone.

"It's a very long story," Elaina said, wanting him to drop the subject.

Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

"Thank you," Ron said to the book.

Elaina groaned.

But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop.

Elaina groaned again.

Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.

"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."

"Please don't mention the Underworld, please don't mention the Underworld…." Elaina pleated to herself.

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

"Gods, dammit!" Elaina slapped her left fist into her right palm while leaning backwards.

Chiron's expression darkened.

"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits goafter death. But for now ... until we know more . . . I would urge you to put that out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"

"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."

As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

"Is that true?" Draco asked.

"Yep," Elaina said. "It's always been like that."

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stalked with what? Armed with what?" Ginny was getting curious now.

"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"

"Seriously, Weaselette you've got to stop doing that," Draco remarked after everybody chuckled.

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"

"What kind of a camp would let kids have their own swords and shields?" Hermione asked in a worried tone.

"This one," Elaina said. "You need them for our weekly game of Capture the Flag on Friday nights."

"My own—?"

"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."

"An Armory?" Luna asked. "I've always wanted to go to one of those."

I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.

"Cool, a Javelin range," Ron commented.

"Is that the first place you're going to when we get to the camp?" Harry asked his best friend.

"What do you think, mate? You know I've always wanted to try javelin throwing ever since Fred and George discovered it."

"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.

"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What do they do when it rains?" Ernie wondered.

"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.

Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.

"Good idea," Hannah said.

Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by thelake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And theywere without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side,evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like atiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Sevenseemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossibleto look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greekstatues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

"Okay, which cabins are which, Laine?" Draco asked.

"The one with tomato vines and grass on the roof is Demeter. The one that looks like a small factory is Hephaestus. "The golden one, which is my cabin, is Apollo." Elaina explained.

"That's three out of twelve," Hermione said.

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

Hestia, Elaina thought. Goddess of the hearth and home.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" Hermione guessed without looking at the book.

"Uh huh," Elaina answered.

"Correct," Chiron said.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Everyone laughed.

"That's a weird rhyme," Cho commented.

"And a little random," Ginny added.

Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.

"Here we go," Elaina sighed.

It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were ofrough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straightfrom the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, Iwouldn't do that!"

"Why?" Cho asked.

"That's the Poseidon cabin." Elaina explained. "It was just an honorary cabin before…"

"Before what…" Harry wanted to know.

"Never mind."

Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.

Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on withbuckets and fists.

"It really was," Elaina said.

"Really," Ernie asked wryly.

"Uh huh. Five years ago, when I first came to the camp, the Ares cabin was in worse shape than it was described just now. So the Ares kids decided to repaint the cabin and literally splashed it with red paint and to make sure it was secure, they put barbed wire on the roof so no one could get in at night to pull pranks on them."

The roof was lined with barbed wire.

"See," Elaina said.

A stuffed wild boar's head hung over thedoorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me.

"I hate that thing,"

Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids,both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. Theloudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She remindedme of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hairwas long and stringy, and brown instead of red.

Everyone laughed at the description of Clarisse La Rue.

"I thought the biggest shirt size was an extra large," Draco laughed.

"Nope," Harry said, calming down. "My cousin Dudley wears a Quadruple extra large."

"Damn," was Draco's reply.

I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.

"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."

"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."

He smiled down at me."The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."

"But, shouldn't you be dead?"

"That's rude," Hermione scolded the book.

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. Thetruth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work Iloved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from thatwish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.

"That's got to suck,"Draco commented. "Putting up with weirdo kids for three millennia."

"Chiron actually doesn't mind," Elaina said. "He has a few favorites, like my sister, Annaliese Riddle."

"Why is she Chiron's favorite?" Draco asked. Annaliese Riddle…he liked that name.

"Well," Elaina began. "She can hit the bull's eye every stinking time in archery class and she has a perfect singing voice, never hits wrong notes, her hair's always clean…she makes me sick."

"Riddle," Harry said. "Isn't that Voldemort's last name?"

"It's a very common British name." Elaina said.

"She's British?" Draco asked his friend. "Accent and everything?"

"Yeah. She's also dad's favorite, too because he loved her mother."

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

"Why depressing?" Harry wondered.

"Possibly because the kids don't do stuff right, I assume." Hermione guessed.

"Why depressing?"

Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.

"Does he always do that when he wants to avoid a subject?" Ernie asked Elaina.

"Most of the time," Elaina replied.

"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.

When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.

Everybody laughed.

"Nice, Annabeth, nice," Ron commented.

I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexiawas acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. Imean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns,like those in an architecture book.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"

"Is your sister in master's archery?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, I'm in expert," Elaina said sadly.

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ?

"A caduceus," Hermione said, as if it was pretty obvious.

A caduceus.

Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds

"Oh wow," Hannah said surprised.

Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.

Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him.

Harry and Ron snickered.

But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids.

"Awkward silence," Ernie said. Elaina and Hannah giggled. Hermione shook her head.

They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.

"Uh, I hate it when people do that," Harry groaned.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

"This is gonna be good," Ron said rubbing his palms together.

So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.

The students cracked up.

"Lesson number 1:" Elaina started. "Don't make a fool of yourself on your first day of camp. You'll end up getting a bad rep for the first couple of days. It's not cool."

There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.

Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven.

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

"Undetermined?" Luna asked.

"When you first go into cabin eleven, some kid always wants to know if you are a son or daughter of Hermes or not. If not, then you are Undetermined. And that means that your godly parent hasn't claimed you yet." Elaina said with a tone of annoyance, getting tired of explaining things.

I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."

Everybody groaned.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."

Elaina shivered at the mention of Luke. She couldn't believe what he'd done this past year. Poor Annabeth, she thought.

The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short- cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile.

Ginny was fanning her face with her hand. "Oh my god, he sounds hot!" Elaina held back a laugh.

Harry gave her a stern look.

"What?" she stopped fanning her face.

He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow.

"Aw does wittle Annabeth fancy Wuke?" Draco said in mock baby talk.

Hannah couldn't help it, she started giggling.

I glanced over andcould've sworn she was blushing. She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He'syour counselor for now."

"For now?" I asked.

"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in,so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, ourpatron, is the god of travelers."

"Is that where we're going to stay when we get to camp?" Luna asked. She has a little problem with too many people in a small space.

"No," Elaina said. "Chiron's going to have the campers build cabins for the four Houses and you'll be staying in there."

I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it asmy own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about settingthat down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.

"So we should be careful as to where we put our stuff?" Cho wondered.

"Yeah." Elaina said. "The Hermes kids can steal stuff easily. So hide your valuables in places they won't think to look.

"Good to know," Hermione said with sarcasm.

I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.

"How long will I be here?" I asked.

"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."

How long will that take?" Ron asked

Elaina laughed.

"How long will that take?"

The students laughed.

The campers all laughed.

"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."

"I've already seen it."

"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me. When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?"

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

Ginny started singing "He Could Be the One" by Hannah Montana, which the girls cracked up at.

"What's your problem?" I 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?"

I shook my head. "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."

"Yeah, good to know," Draco remarked sarcastically.

"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."

I 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."

"Hey Harry have you ever had a conversation with someone in their sleep?" Ron asked his friend.

"Yeah," Harry answered. "Once with Dudley and another time with Neville. It was hilarious. Neville was telling me about the time when he rode on a broomstick before he came to Hogwarts and his gran got mad at him and stuff. The one with Dudley..." Harry paused trying to remember. "I think it was asking him if I could go watch television in his second bedroom and he was like, 'Sure,' and I watched a Phineas and Ferb marathon all night."

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

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her.

"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?

"Thank you," Elaina said.

I sounded whiny, even to myself,but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody socrowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."

She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," I 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."

"Your father's not dead, Percy," Elaina said to the book.

Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"How could she?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know," Harry said.

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

"You don't know anything about me."

"No?" She 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."

I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Yeah," Luna said. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Elaina shook her head.

"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. Yoursenses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most ofthem are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

The students were a little confused.

"So," Draco said to Elaina, trying to figure this out. "Your ADHD keeps you alive in battles and dyslexia makes your brain hardwired for Ancient Greek?'

"Uh huh," she said.

"Then how come you were able to read the book so easily?"

"Because I can read anything in Greek."

"Oh that makes sense,"

"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."

"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.

I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.

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

Elaina groaned.

"What?" Ernie asked, wondering she was groaning about.

"I hate her,"

"Who?"

I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Who is she?" Draco asked.

"You'll see." Elaina replied.

"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 I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was 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 me. "Who's this little runt?"

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "Meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

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

"Don't make the Ares kids mad," Elaina pointed out.

"Why?" Ginny asked.

"Believe me. Just believe me."

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

"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."

Everyone laughed.

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

"Why can't they just leave the poor kid alone?" Hermione said.

Elaina started to giggle.

"Laughing again, eh Troy?" Ron said with sarcasm.

"You'll get why this chapter is called 'I Become Supreme Lord of The Bathroom' in just a minute." The Slytherin said.

"Didn't you say you were there?" Ernie recalled.

"Yeah," Elaina said. "I was pulling a prank with Connor and Travis Stoll, sons of Hermes, when we almost got caught and hid in a nearby tree and saw the whole thing. We almost died of laughter."

"Percy."

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

"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the

new kid. I had to earn my own rep.

"Good luck with that, mate," Harry said.

I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarissehad me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediatelywas the bathroom.

I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me 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 I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.

Everyone was pretty much dying of laughter now.

"Why's Clarisse bringing him in the bathroom?" Ernie wondered.

Elaina was still laughing recalling the "ceremony".

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

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

"Big Three?"

"The eldest gods. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."

Her friends snickered.

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.

"This is where it gets entertaining," Elaina said.

"How?" Cho asked.

"Just listen."

Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl.

"Ick!" Hannah exclaimed. "She's going to stick his head in the toilet?"

"I guess…" Ernie said.

Itreeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets.

Everyone cracked up.

"Disgusting," Hermione muttered.

I strained to keep my head up. I waslooking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.

Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.

I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face sohard it pushed her down onto her butt.

"Nice," Ginny commented while giggling.

The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose,pushing her backward into a shower stall.

She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.

"Eww," Hannah said.

As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.

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

I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.

I stood up, my legs shaky.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"That was cool," Draco said.

"I know," Ginny agreed.

"Can he do it again?" Luna asked.

Annabeth said, "How did you ..."

"I don't know."

We 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 me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

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

"He should close his mouth," Ginny commented.

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 me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.

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

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

"Ah, there we go," Hermione said, closing the book. "Were done with the chapter. Who wants to read next?"

"I'll do it!" Ginny volunteered. Hermione handed her friend the book and read, "Chapter 7…"

I would just like to say that the 100th reviewer of this story will get a preview of this story. So get writing if you want to read what is in store for the next chappie:)