A Different Reality (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chp 165 - Valentine's pt. I

A/N: Ok, this one is going to be a little different from the others like Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. Instead of splitting it between each character's POV (which would take roughly 6 or 7 chapters with a lot of flashbacks), I'm going to cover all Valentines (even those not for the demigods) in this chapter and the next. I'm usually not a big fan of dozens of POVs in the same chapter, but this is a special case. I hope you like it!

Will's POV

MONDAY, 13th February

You know, I'd have expected you to have a steadier hand.

Shut up.

It's not that hard icing a cupcake, it's not... I don't know, setting a bone back in place. You have done that, haven't you?

Shut up, I need to concentrate.

You're making this more complicated than it has to be.

I'm- I'M making this more complicated than it has to be? YOU told me the icing had to be perfect.

Well, now I see that the Youtube tutorial was too much for you; I was aiming too high. Don't you guys bake stuff in your camp?

I'm usually dealing with people. If I baked them, that would be a problem. Sure, there are some healing spells that are uncomfortably warm, but-

I don't mean your patients! I meant like having a communal kitchen for the demigods to try new recipes or something. Maybe a Home-Ec class. After all, cooking, at least the basics, IS a survival skill, along with first aid and killing monsters 101. Or are they supposed to live of take-out? Those things are expensive in large quantities. You can always cook over a firepit with basic ingredients. Didn't you say Demeter's kids could grow vegetables at will?

... I don't usually agree with you, but you have a point.

The demigods leave your camp knowing to decapitate a minotaur, but not-

The.

What?

It's not A minotaur, but THE Minotaur, there's only one.

... It doesn't change my point. They leave experts in decapitating, but do they know how to fry an egg? Or do laundry? Open a bank account? Do taxes? Didn't you say some of those demigods are year-round campers? Shouldn't the camp step up and complete the education they are not getting from school?

Are you saying you learn to open a bank account in school?

No, I can ask mommy for that. Or I can use the internet and search it up. Can your campers do the same? I thought you said technology is dangerous.

... It is.

So? If your camp's goal is to prepare the demigods for the outside world, shouldn't it teach them those things?

I see your point, but who would teach this?

I thought it was obvious.

Who? The millennia-old centaur who teaches heroes since the old times? Or the millennia-old lazy god with a serious abstinence crisis? Maybe the nature spirits?

Why not invite the ex-campers that already left to the outside world and learned how to do all those things by learning from their mistakes?

That's... actually a good idea.

As I said, I thought it was obvious. You learn from those who've already done it.

They could stay in the Big House. Or maybe this could be the thing that convinces Chiron of Annabeth's idea of building cabins not associated with gods. It would be easier to convince the ex-campers to spend time teaching if they don't have to share the Big House with Seymour's snores and Chiron's taste in music.