OH, CHÉRIE!¹ percy jackson

004

❛004❜

WORD OF THE bathroom incident spread immediately.  which wasn't surprising, nothing remained a secret at camp for long. wherever percy went, campers pointed at him and murmured something about toilet water. or maybe they were just staring at ivy, who still remained soaked to the bone. to keep herself from gutting percy right then and there, ivy asked annabeth to join them.

the two girls showed percy a few more places around camp: the metal shop (briefly meeting beckendorf, who barely glanced up from the project he was working on), the arts-and-crafts room (where the satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of pan), and the climbing wall, which consisted of two facing wall that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.

finally they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"i've got training to do," annabeth said flatly.

"and a shower is calling my name," ivy added, sending percy a brief glare. subtly she pulled her sticky t-shirt away from her body, "dinner's at seven thirty. just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"i'm sorry about the bathroom thing."

ivy raised an eyebrow, "uhu."

"and about your shoes too. even if it wasn't my fault."

annabeth and ivy shared a glance before looking at percy flatly. it was his fault. he had been to one to make the water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. the daughter of aphrodite didn't know how that could happen, maybe percy's father was the minor god of toilets.

"you need to talk to the oracle," annabeth said. ivy couldn't help but agree, percy was definitely...weirder than he looked.

"who?" he asked cluelessly. yep, ivy concluded, definitely didn't watch the orientation film.

"not who. what. the oracle. i'll ask chiron."

percy got a far away look in his eyes as he stared into the lake. while the brunette thought the oracle was the best choice for answers, she knew of the chances of it going wrong. people have gone insane, stopped speaking at all, and a hundred different variants as evidence of what horrifying things the oracle could show you. or was its face that ugly?

ivy noticed two naiads at the bottom of the water. sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about five metres below. wearing blue jeans and shimmering green t-shirts, their hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. they were smiling and waving, it took ivy a minute to realize that they were looking at percy. who was smiling a little stupidly while waving back. she slapped his hand down.

"don't encourage them, annabeth warned. a smirk was growing in her face, "naiads are terrible flirts. even worse than ivy."

ivy stuck her tongue out at her best friend. but didn't deny her accusation.

"naiads," percy repeated woozily. "that's it. i wanna go home. now."

annabeth frowned. "don't you get it, percy? you are home. this is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."

"you mean, mentally disturbed kids?"

"apart from that," ivy said. "annabeth means not completely human. just half."