The Riptides: Percy's Sister (Percy Jackson And The Olympians)

Book One, Chapter Nine 1.9

The next morning, Saturday, Chiron moved us to cabin three. We didn't have to share with anybody except each other. We had plenty of room for all our stuff: Percy's minotaur horn, my backpack, water bottle, Oscar, Sprinkles, two sets of clothes and toiletries. We sat at our own dinner table, pick all our own activities, call "lights out" whenever we felt like it and not listen to anyone else.

And I, at least, didn't see much of a change, except feeling a tad miserable.

Just when we started to feel accepted, to feel we had a home in cabin eleven and might be normal kids- or as normal a demigod can be -we'd been separated like out casts again.

Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but we got the feeling people were talking about it behind our backs. The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that we're children of Poseidon and two, monsters will stop at nothing to kill us. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.

I tried joining other people's conversations, but I always got the same reaction, they'd look at me weird and walk away. Percy and I tried talking about literally anything else, even Smelly Gabe, but that conversation always ended the same: "We're freaks."

Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with us after what we'd done to Clarisse, Bern and the rest of camo girls at the creek, so our lessons with Luke became one on one.

"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."

Annabeth still taught us Greek in the mornings, but she always seemed distracted. Every time we'd say something, she'd scowl at us, as if we flicked her head or something.

After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest... Poseidon?... Dirty rotten... Got to make a plan..."

Even Clarisse and Bern kept their distance, though their murderous looks made it clear they wanted to kill us for making them look stupid. Not that they needed our help with that. Yes, I'm reusing it, I don't care.

I just wish they'd yell or punch us or something. I'd rather get into fights everyday than be ignored and have the same dull conversation with Percy.

We figured some one at camp resented us, because one night when we came into our cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. We argued about which one of us was going to read it until I snapped and snatched the paper from him. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around the page. Banner headline:

CHILDREN AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT

BY EILEEN SMYTHE

Sally Jackson and children Percy and Molly are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.
Mother and children had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.
Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepchildren, Percy and Molly Jackson, are troubled kids who've been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.
Police would not say whether son Percy and daughter Molly are suspects in their mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson, Percy and Molly. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll free crime stoppers hot line.