On with the show!

Duncan Allis' POV

"Yes, that fish requires saltwater, not freshwater!" I told a lady for the fifth time. Clownfish are not freshwater fish! I was halfway through my shift at an aquarium store called Aqua Palace, and it was around lunchtime so the morning rush of the people who've been keeping fish for fifty years and buy them fresh food every morning was over. I mean, I like fish, but not that much. I finally convinced the lady to buy a nice little guppy for her ten gallon aquarium and sat down with a sigh at my stool when the door rang.

"Hello, welcome to Aqua Palace!" our cashier, Emily, cheerily called out. "How can I help you today?"

'I'm getting an aquarium," a male voice proudly said. The voice sounded mature but the wording incredibly young.

"Okay, go on and see Jack over there!" Catherine pointed to me and I stood up.

'Hi, I'm Jonah," I greeted them. The boy that had spoken was tall, taller than me, and had messy dark hair and ocean green eyes.

"Percy," he said, looking around.

"I'm Annabeth," his companion, a pretty girl with curly blonde hair told me.

"Nice to meet you," I told them, inwardly sighing. Teenagers were always the type to buy a fish and put it in a bowl to die. "Let's go over here and pick out your tank." I led them to the retail side of the store, where hundreds of tanks of varying sizes shone under the lights.

"What's the biggest you have?" Percy asked. Oh great, a spoilt brat.

"Percy! You live in a your cabin!" Annabeth complained. "Your room is such a disaster, I bet you can't fit a fish bowl."

"A cabin should be able to hold anything up to three thousand pounds total," I interjected, not wanting an argument.

"Great," Percy smiled smugly. "How big would that be?"

"About three hundred gallons," I said, gesturing to three huge tanks about seven feet long that sat in the middle of the store.

"Cool!" Percy ran over. The three tanks came with stands and covers, one was white, one was black, and one was wood-colored. "I want, hmm," he mused. "The black one!" Wow. I'd never had anyone just come in and buy such a huge tank so fast.

"That's a thousand dollars, Percy!" Annabeth reminded him, having seen the tag. "Plus probably another two thousand for everything else you need."

"I know," he said, whispering something in her ear. She laughed and nodded.

"Alright, go nuts!" She gestured expansively to the whole store. He grinned and hugged her. Having no clue what just happened, I played along, taking out a sticky note and labeling the white aquarium as 'SOLD'.

"So, now you need to figure out if you want salt or fresh water," I said. "Saltwater's more difficult for a first time keeper."

"Saltwater!" Percy quickly said.

"Of course, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth smacked his arm.

"What! I like the ocean!"

"Mm-hmm."

I coughed slightly. "Great, let's get you some rock and sand for your aquarium, and lights and such." Over the next hour, Percy selected the fanciest version of everything, from lighting to filtration, filling up two carts with all the equipment. He paid the grand total of $2,567.89 and headed out to a big white van labeled Delphi's Strawberry Service. They loaded everything in and waved goodbye, since they knew now that they had to cycle the aquarium to make it safe for fish. I'd told them to come back in a month, with photos, because who doesn't want to see a tank that big?

A month later, I saw them back.

"Hello, guys! How's the aquarium?" I greeted them. Hopefully they'd buy a lot more stuff because I got a huge commission off that sale.

"Percy nearly broke it several times," Annabeth said, staring pointedly at Percy, "but it's okay. Here, we took a photo." She handed me a printout of the huge aquarium in a room with blue and green walls, filled with water and the rocks and sand arranged just so.

"Annabeth took AGES to set up the rocks! You would've thought she was designing another temple!" Percy complained, then covered his mouth and muttered an "oops". Annabeth punched him, glaring. Another temple? Since when do teenage girls design temples?

"Wow, it looks awesome," I said appreciatively. It really did. I was thinking it'd end up filled with beer bottles and the rocks haphazardly throw everywhere. "Ready to pick out some fish?" Percy nodded quickly and followed me to the first line of aquariums with fish in them. "Did you make a list of what fish you want, like I asked?" Annabeth dug in her bag and pulled out a list neatly written in a girl's handwriting. I looked it over- wow. It was neatly written with the Latin names of each species and amounts for each. It looked like this:

2x Mandarin Dragonet
2x Mccosker Wrasse
4x Firefish
1x Emperor Angel
2x Clownfish
1x Orange Stripped Goby
1x Yellowfin Wrasse
1x Anthias
1x Flame Angel
1x Potters Angel
1x Powder Blue Tang
2x Yellow Tang
1x Regal Tang
1x Yellow Longnose Butterfly
1x Tailspot Blenny
3x Banggai Cardinal

"Wow, alright then. Nice job. Let's pick out the big fish first," I led them to the tank filled with angelfish. Percy leaned down and looked closely at each one.

"Those ones," he pointed out the ones he wanted, and I bagged them. We kept going until we had all the fish he wanted in a big cart, all in individual bags.

"Do you want corals?" I was hoping he'd say yes, since corals equaled big commission tabs.

"Yes! Definitely! Why don't you pick them out, I don't know much about light requirements," he said excitedly. Annabeth rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded like "Lazy son of Poseidon." Weird. I happily went through and selected a bunch of beautiful corals, anemones, and invertebrates like snails and crabs, piling up at least a thousand dollars worth. So? They were evidently rich and I could use the commission! I handed them the second cartful and Percy grinned, Annabeth shaking her head. Since it was Catherine's day off, I checked them out, and Annabeth handed me a credit card that said "Daedalus Banking and Inventions" on it. I stared in awe as the infinity sign came up for the maximum amount, my eyes revealing my shock.

"That'll be $3,497.76," I said in awe.

"Not mine, it was a gift from, um, long story," Annabeth added quickly. I happily rang them up and helped them put everything in the same van as before.

"Send me photos!" I said, giving Percy a slip with my email written on it.

"Cool, thanks, man," he said, shaking my hand. Two months later, I received a photo of the most beautiful aquarium I'd ever seen. It looked exactly like a wild reef and was covered in corals, the fish healthy looking and swimming happily. I saw them back in the store every so often, the tank never ran into a single issue and was eventually featured in a reef keeper's magazine when I sent in a photo of it. Turns out, Percy was a delinquent when he was twelve. Things are really odd sometimes, but I was fine with it. I made nearly a thousand in commissions off of them