𝙇𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨 (𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙭 𝙁𝙚𝙢! 𝙊𝘾) 𝙏𝙏𝘾

The Music Thing Happens Again

Percy looked at Sylvia, who was smirking after an exceptionally embarrassing baby story his mom told her, Fawkes–that was her name, right?–the phoenix on her shoulder. He groaned internally. She was so going to use that as blackmail.

Percy thought that maybe, just maybe, the annoying daughter of Apollo would be too nervous to talk about anything, but she had an entire eight-hour conversation with his mom.

The drive was eight hours long.

"We're here," his mom announced suddenly, bringing Percy out of his thoughts.

"Welcome to Westover Hall, the school for vampires," Sylvia muttered after taking a single look at the outside building. It looked like an evil knight's castle. It was all black stone, with towers and slit windows and a big set of stone double doors. It stood on a snowy cliff overlooking this big frosty forest on one side and the gray churning ocean on the other side–y'know, the typical place for everything to go wrong.

Has she never been to a military school before? Percy wondered. Most of them look like this.

"Well, I'll hopefully see you later, Sally," Sylvia said, starting to get out of the car.

"Wait!" his mom said, grabbing a pen and a pad of paper out of her pocket and scribbling something on a piece of paper before handing it to Sylvia.

Gods know why she keeps those in her pocket, Percy thought.

"My number," Sally explained.

"Oh. Um...thank you." The daughter of Apollo smiled.

"No problem, honey," Sally said as everyone else filed out of the blue vehicle. "Keep in touch once in a while."

How come Mom likes her? Percy thought grumpily. I don't. For good reason, too. You'd think a mom would be overprotective over her son if she met his basically-enemy.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" Sally asked, her eyes concerned.

"No thanks, Mom," Percy said. "I don't know how long it'll take. We'll be okay."

Percy was perfectly aware that those were definitely famous last words.

"But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy."

Percy mentally sighed. It was bad enough he had to depend on his mom to drive him to his battles.

"It's okay, Mrs. Jackson." Annabeth smiled reassuringly. Her blonde hair was tucked into a ski cap and her gray eyes were the same colour at the ocean around them. Percy saw Sylvia glance at her, and noticed her cheeks were red. She must've been cold or something. Good. "We'll keep him out of trouble."

"All right, dears," his mom said. "Do you have everything you need?"

"Yes, Mrs. Jackson," Thalia said.

"Thanks for the ride," Sylvia added. The way she was acting around his mom confused Percy. He didn't know she was capable of being polite.

"Extra sweaters? Don't lose my phone number, please."

"Mom–"

"Your ambrosia and nectar? And a drachma in case you need to message the camp?"

"Mom, seriously! We'll be fine. Come on, guys." Sylvia glared reproachfully at Percy at that.

She–his mom, not Sylvia–looked a little hurt, and Percy was sorry about that, but he was ready to be in the building. If his mom told one more story about how cute he looked in the bathtub when he was three, he was going to burrow into the snow and freeze himself to death. Or annoy Sylvia. Either option would get the same results.