Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I probably never will. But i do own Rosabella and her father. By the way Bella only loves Percy like a brother.

CHAPTER THREE

GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS

"On that happy note, who wants to read next?" Asked Thalia

" I will" Annabeth said.

She took the book and was about to read when a bright light filled the throne room.

After the light disappeared everyone looked to see Two boys and a girl in the middle of the throne room.

They stood dazed. The boys had brown hair and looked exactly alike and girl had dirt all over her cloths and on her hands. They figured out were they were and bowed to the gods.

" This must be the other demigods the note talked about." Athena reasoned.

"Wh-" the girl was to ask but there was another flash of light and a note appeared on the floor. She picked it up and read:

Heres some demigods for you. We might send more so be prepared.

Hermes and Apollo

"Well introduce yourself." Zeus said.

The boys stepped forward. One said "Connor..."

The other said" And Travis..."

Then they said together "Stoll, Sons of Hermes."

Hermes smiled at his sons.

Then the girl "Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter." She smiled at her mother and she smiled back.

After a quick explanation about what happened in the book, the three sat down with the other demigods.

" I'll start now ' Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants," Annabeth read.

Everyone burst out laughing.

" Grover that's indecent." Travis said between laughs.

Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.

"Seaweed brain."

"Well that was stupid." Athena said.

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"

"I would have ditched him to," Said Travis.

Katie smacked his arm "Thats mean even if your freaked out."

Nobody noticed Connor snickering.

Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.

"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.

Connor looked at Travis "Are you thinking what I'm thinking."

" Don't you dare." Annabeth said glaring at them.

A word about my mother, before you meet her.

" awesome," Thalia said.

"The best." Annabeth said.

" Beat cook ever." Nico said.

"Amazing." Bella said.

Poseidon smiled at all the nice things they said.

Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.

Then he frowned.

Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.

"Jerk" Aphrodite said. She grabbed a tube of lipstick and threw it at Zeus. She had perfect aim.

"HEY THAT WAS MY EYE!" Zeus yelled "That hurt"

"Good" Aphrodite said.

The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.

Not angry anymore, Aphrodite cooed" Awwwwwwwww." and Poseidon blushed.

I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.

See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.

"She can lie but not lie. You can pick uncle." Hermes said.

Poseidon just smiled.

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.

"understatement" Thalia coughed.

Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.

"Ewww." Most of the people in the room said.

Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along … well, when I came home is a good example.

I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."

"Where's my mom?"

"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"

"HE ASKED HIM FOR CASH. WHO DOES THAT!" surprisingly it came from Hera, who has been uncharitably quiet through the chapters.

Everyone stared at her. She never defended a demigod before. It was just plain strange. She said "What" and they all turned to the book.

That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

Everyone gagged.

He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.

"WHAT!" Bella yells her eyes looking like a nature's fury ready to be unleshed. All the gods, goddesses, and demigods inch away from her in fear.

"WHAT!" Poseidon yelled.

He got off his throne and disappeared before anyone could stop him.

Everyone stared in shock.

"Should we be worried?" Annabeth said.

Nobody answered. Then Annabeth went back to the book.

"I don't have any cash," I told him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Cue more gagging.

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.

Athena's eyes pop out of her head. I wonder… she thinks.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."

"At least he's semi decent." Thalia said. She was disgusted at Gabe.

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.

" Nevermind." She scrunched her nose with disgust.

"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."

"We all do." said Travis, Conner, and Nico.

"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.

"Ugg, This man needs to be removed off the face of the earth." Artemis says with more disgust on her face then ever.

" Who would live in theat pig sty?" Nico asked.

"Nico that's an insult to pigs everywhere." Thalia said.

That broke the disgusted tension. Everyone laughed.

I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.

" Oh sarcasm, sweet sarcasm." Nico said. That was one of the things he missed about Percy.

Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.

''How can it be that bad?" Katie asked.

" With Him? probably." Travis said.

But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

Everyone moved closer to the edge of their seats, tense.

Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"

Everybody sighed in relief

She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.

"Awww" Aphrodite cooed.

"Wimp" Ares said. Then got smacked up the head by Aphrodite.

"What is with you? your always like that."

Ares stayed quiet.

Aphrodite huffed and motioned for Annabeth to read.

My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.

"Wow." Most people said.

"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"

Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.

" NO FAIR, i wish we had a mom like that." Connor said.

Travis nodded.

We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?

Ares was about to say 'wimp' again but stopped seeing the look on Aphrodite's face.

I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"

I gritted my teeth.

So did everyone in the room.

My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.

"Or a God." Apollo said.

For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.

Until that trip to the museum …

"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"

"No, Mom."

"Don't lie!" this came from the least likely person, Hermes.

Everyone starred at him.

"What i know this isn't the time for a lie." Hermes said.

Everyone looked at him more than got back to the book.

I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.

"It wouldn't to her she can see through the mist." Annabeth said.

The Gods looked at her shocked.

Annabeth just shrugged and began reading again.

She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.

"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."

My eyes widened. "Montauk?"

"Three nights-same cabin."

"When?"

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.

"That man is going to be sorry when I-" Bella began angrily, but was interrupted by Annabeth's voice.

"Probably gambled it away," Thalia said disgusted quiety to herself.

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

I wanted to punch him,

"Do it!": Everyone yelled. They had enough of smelly Gabe.

but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.

"Awwwww" Everyone said. they really wanted that jerk to get decked.

"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."

"He better" Nico and Thalia said at the same time.

They looked at each other.

"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

"bribery, oh sweet bribery." Connor, Travis, and Hermes with dreamy look on their faces.

Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"WHAT!" Aphrodite screamed so loud California could hear it.

" YOU CAN'T PUT A BUDGET ON CLOTHES" Aphrodite screamed.

"Honey, I'll take you shopping after this. if you stop. Your making us deaf." This didn't come from Ares it came from Hephaestus.

Aphrodite calmed down."Really?" Aphridite asked looking at her husband.

"Would I lie to my wife?" He asked.

Aphrodite squealed.

Nobody noticed Ares scowled.

"Yes, honey," my mother said.

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful."

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

"Interrupt! He payed for it." Apollo said.

" Apollo said something smart." Artemis said.

"Shut up"

Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought.

"Do it!" everyone yelled expectedly Ares.

And make you sing soprano for a week.

Everyone laughed.

But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.

Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?

"Thats what we want to know" muttered Athena.

"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."

Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.

"He has a brain?" Connor asked.

" If he does it's the size of a pea." Said Travis.

"Yeah, whatever," he decided.

He went back to his game.

"Idiot" Apollo said.

"All men are idiots." Artemis said.

all the men in the room yelled "Hey!" While Apollo said. " You know you love us, sis."

"Don't call me sis!"

"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.

But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.

"Jerk" Was heard from all over the room.

"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."

"Like He'll be driving, he's twelve!" Annabeth yelled.

Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.

Everyone laughed as Annabeth blushed.

"You think like Percy" Nico said still laughing.

"Shut up"

But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.

Annabeth and Bella both growled.

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.

There was a shocked silence.

"He's powerful." Athena said.

"Yes he is" Annabeth said the last words turning into a whisper.

Maybe too powerful thought Zeus.

Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.

I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets

"I guess you don't go there." Thalia said turning to Annabeth.

" I do, I make him clean it first though."

"Wait, Why did you go there Annabeth? It's sea spawn's cabin." asked Athena.

"Ummm, He's my friend." Annabeth said.

"Oh, okay" Athena said but still sounded suspicious

, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

I loved the place.

"Of course."

We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.

Aww that so sweet" Aphrodite cooed.

As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.

"Its like she's connected to the sea" Said Katie.

"probably what drawled Poseidon to her." said Bella as she thought about it.

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.

"What's with the blue food?" Zeus asked "That's my color."

I guess I should explain the blue food.

"That would be nice."

See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.

"He gets it from Sally too?" Thalia said.

"Yep , apparently." Was the answer she got.

When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.

"Which she is writing in our time probably at this very moment." says Annabeth Smiling.

Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.

"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."

"Yeah he does" Annabeth said. Thalia gave her a reassuring hand on her Bella give her hand a squeeze.

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."

"He is"

I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.

"He doesn't care about that, seaweed brain.'' said Annabeth.

"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean … when he left?"

She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But… he knew me as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."

I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember … something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.

I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …

I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.

"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"

She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?"

"Percy!" Bella says angrily and just shakes her head.

" Why that little" Hera said angrily.

I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

"At least he regrets it." Said Artemis.

My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.

"Because I'm not normal," I said.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing." said Nico.

"Says the person whose the least normal" Thalia teased

"Shut up."

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Safe from what?"

She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.

During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.

"Why would a cyclops be following him?" Connor asked.

" Not all cyclops are good." Annabeth said shuddering at the memory. Thalia put a hand on her shoulder.

Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.

"Wow"

In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.

I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.

"He's willing to sacrifice his safety, so his mom can enjoy herself?" Hera asks amazed and Annabeth just nods.

"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."

"CAMP HALF-BLOOD ROCKS!" the twins yelled.

Then they got smacked up the head by Katie.

My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?

"She didn't want to leave you," Bella said.

Annabeth pursed her lips.

That was a fatal mistake on Sally's part...

"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp …"

She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.

That night I had a vivid dream.

"I hate his dreams." Said Annabeth

"Are they really that bad?" Asked Apollo

"Percy's dreams are highly vivid and very prophetic." Annabeth informed them.

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

Everyone looked at Zeus sence Poseidon wasn't there.

I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!

"Yeah! I won!" Zeus yelled.

Thalia rolled her eyes at her dad's behavior.

I woke with a start.

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.

My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.

"What is he then?" Apollo asked.

"Think about the title" Athena said.

" Oh... I still Don't get it"

"Idiot" muttered Artemis.

Why did he have to be my twin? Artemis thought.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"

My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be … where his legs should be …

"Where what!"

My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"

I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

"Oh come on Seaweed Brain," Annabeth muttered. "You have to do better than that."

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.

"Finlay." Apollo said.

"idiot" Artemis said rolling her eyes.

"Well it's getting late. WE should get to bed. Hermes show the demigods to their rooms." Athena said.

"Will do" Hermes said getting up.

The gods flashed out and Hermes said "Come with me."

The demigods followed him out of the throne room.

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