I had to rewrite this chapter, because every time I read it, I cringed. It was too short, too basic, and sounded as though a four-year-old had written it. Plus, on any given month, I'd lose anywhere from between seventy to twenty readers between chapters one and two alone. Obviously, people weren't liking it. I like this better, but expect me to fix it again when the whole story is finished.

Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own Percy Jackson. You can bet that if I did, the House of Hades would be out already *ahem, ahem, Rick Riordan*.

Percy woke up that morning with an ache in his arm. He felt it first when he yanked it through his sleeve, and again when he tied his grey Converse. Rubbing it, he plunked himself down at the table formerly known as Poseidon (Percy and Hazel had long since petitioned Chiron to abolish the seating by cabin, and succeeded). He was the first of the Seven to arrive, and as they straggled in, one by one, Percy inwardly bemoaned the fact that he was the only nearly-seventeen-year-old dude this side of the Atlantic (which is the entire world, if you thought about it) to be an early riser.

They seated themselves and started talking about their summer freedom, sans quests and prophecies and monsters for once in their lives. Mostly, they were excited about the fact that they had two whole months before they all, besides Annabeth, would start at Goode. It was only typical that someone in the close-knit circle of friends would notice Percy's discomfort, and she did, fairly quickly. Hazel, on Percy's right, was constantly being banged by his rubbing left hand or his right elbow as he awkwardly angled his way towards his food. Finally fed up, she asked, "Why are you eating like that?"

Percy froze, an entire blue pancake halfway to his mouth. "Like what?" he asked with difficulty, having not finished his previous pancake yet.

"Like a pig, duh," said someone at the other end of the table. Percy opened his mouth and shot a gorgeous view of squashed blue pancake in the voice's general direction.

"No," Hazel insisted. "You've banged me fivescore times."

Leo laughed. "A hundred, chica. Not fivescore. A hundred."

"What's the difference?" Hazel almost growled. "No one cares. I give up on your slang."

"You sound like you're from the forties," Percy said.

"And you act like you're from New York City, with your constant elbowing!"

"I am from New York City."

"That's good, because I'm from the forties!"

She glared at him until she couldn't keep it up any longer and laughed. "Seriously, though. Keep your New York City elbow to yourself!"

"Saw-rry," drawled Percy, a hint of his usually-concealed New York accent accidentally peeking through. "I think I pulled a muscle when I fought that hellhound yesterday."

Piper tossed an ambrosia square at him. He caught it in his left hand, banging Leo, who was sitting on his other side.

"You banged me," the latter stated.

Percy growled at him.

"But since when do you have a New York accent?"

Percy flushed. "I do not."

"Nawt!" yelled Leo excitedly. "You said 'nawt'!"

Percy looked desperately at Annabeth.

"You do," she confirmed. "You hid it because you were afraid of Travis and Connor teasing you."

"I do not," Percy grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Ha! You said it again!" Leo crowed.

By lunchtime Percy was rubbing his arm again. Piper threw another ambrosia square at him.

"Go see Will," she said, charmspeaking.

A dazed Percy started to get up.

"After lunch," she amended.

Percy sat down.

"Talk in your regular accent until lunch is over," she commanded.

"That's unfah," Percy said, scowling, so fast they almost couldn't hear what he had said. "Yaw ovah-stepping yaw boundaries."

Leo snickered.

"But Leo finds it entertaining!" Piper protested, laughing.

Percy crossed his arms and glowered at her until she agreed to let him hide the accent again.

Will didn't say much as he pursed his lips at Percy's arm. This was unusual. Will liked to talk. He was as irritating as his father.

"This could be anything!" he growled in frustration, flinging his hands in the air and declaring defeat. "Do you have an orthopedist?"

"No," Percy said. "I don't even know what that is."

"It's a bone doctor. But honestly, I can't figure this out. It's swollen, but it's not a broken bone. I doubt it's a pulled muscle, because it's only swollen here." He caught up Percy's hand in his own and ran it over the swollen part. "Hopefully your orthopedist knows more than a senior in high school. I can tell you right now what he's going to do, though. He's going to order a biopsy. I don't think it's legal for me to do it, though."

"But I don't have one," Percy repeated.

Will shrugged. "You'll use mine. Dr. Maddox. You don't have to fill out any forms; I'll just forward him your file from here."

Percy blinked. "Okay, excellent. Thank you." He got up to leave.

"Don't worry!" Will called after his retreating back.

"Okay," Percy called over his shoulder.

He lied.

Percy walked into the arena and removed Riptide from his pocket. Taking off his shirt in the already-sweltering mid-June sun, he went to attack some dummies.

He set Leo's new-and-improved! dummies to attack him in random sequences and put armor on their cotton bodies. Then, he armed them with a shield and a sword, each. Bare-chested and holding only Riptide, he waited for the five-on-one attack.

The first one came at him slowly, advancing with its sword out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two of the others sneak away and knew that they were coming up behind him. Wielding his sword in a Mulan-esque manner (dang, that girl could fight), he slice his sword through all of their heads, hitting the chinks exactly.

Swish. Swish. Swish.

THUDTHUDTHUD.

Their heads fell to the floor and rolled, staring grotesquely up at Percy. The remaining two charged at Percy and he defeated them just as easily.

He frowned. That had been too easy.

He looked around for a human opponent and found Piper shooting hoops across the field. "Piper!" he shouted. When she looked up, he beckoned her closer.

"What?" she asked, jogging up.

"Can you practice with me?" He gave her a puppy-dog look. Piper laughed and unsheathed Katropis. Looking at it, Percy frowned.

"I haven't heard good things about that knife. All I know about it is that it used to be a mirror. That doesn't scream 'weapon!' to me."

Piper shrugged. "Works fine. Wicked sharp, too. I don't have the upper-body strength to wield a heavy sword, like Hazel and Annabeth, but I'm quick enough for a dagger. And I'm short."

Percy lunged at her. "Don't give away your strategy."

She ducked under the swipe of the sword and blocked it with Katropis. "It's okay. I'll win anyway."

Percy gave a mock evil cackle. "You sound a bit over-confident, my pretty," he said. "Maybe I'll start with de-inflating your ego?"

"You'll have to catch me first," she said, laughing.

Percy gave three quick jabs, all of which were parried away. "Well, so far you've lasted longer than any of your siblings."

"Why can't we be hot and know how to fight?" she asked, shimmying her hips and driving her dagger towards Percy's chest.

"Yes!" called Jason from the sidelines, where he had arrived just in time to see Piper's jab. "Um… never mind," he added, as Percy blocked Katropis.

Annabeth and Frank walked up behind him to watch. "Quit ogling my boyfriend," Annabeth teased Piper.

"Hey, he took off his shirt for me," Piper answered, dodging to the left. She feinted with her dagger towards the right, but Percy didn't fall for it. He pole-vaulted over her head and flipped, landing behind her to try and catch her off-guard.

Didn't work. Hazel had been teaching Piper for way too long for her to fall for that. When Percy landed, she was ready, knocking the handle of her dagger into his right arm. Normally, this wouldn't have done a thing, but Percy gasped. Piper remembered the morning with a start and froze. "Are you okay?"

Percy grinned wickedly and swept her off her feet with a well-aimed blow from his sword. "I am now." He stomped on the edge of Katropis' blade and it flipped into the air. He caught it by the handle and bowed. "I win."

"You cheated," Piper challenged.

Percy waved a hand at her and walked towards the edge of the arena, where the crowd of younger campers that had gathered to watch were standing there, clapping. They had obviously missed Percy and Piper's last interchange. "I'll fight you tomorrow," he said. "Now, I have a headache, and I'm going to take a nap." He bowed again towards his adoring fans and left.

Jason walked up next to her. "That was pretty good."

She blushed. "I've been practicing."

"Well, tell Hazel she's doing a really good job. Wanna go shoot hoops?"

"Sure," Piper said, putting her arm in Jason's.

The crowd dispersed, until the arena was deserted save for an orange shirt and five dummy heads on the floor.

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