CHAPTER TWO! alternatively titled: the taxi of eternal torment
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ANNABETH WAS WAITING FOR US IN AN ALLEY DOWN CHURCH STREET.
She pulled Tyson and Percy off the sidewalk just as a fire truck screamed past, heading for Meriwether Prep. It was lucky Percy caught my hand and pulled me along with him.
"Where'd you find him?" she demanded, pointing at Tyson.
Percy looked mad, "He's my friend,"
"Is he homeless?"
"What does that have to do with anything? He can hear you, you know. Why don't you ask him?"
She looked surprised. "He can talk?"
"I talk," Tyson admitted. "You are pretty."
"Ah! Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him. She then turned back to Percy and pointed at me, "What about her, she's clearly a half blood."
"Her name is Diana and she's my best friend," Percy said, "I met her earlier this year."
This was the second time someone called me a half bood. I stepped forward, "Whoa, hold on. What the hell is happening? One minute i'm heading to gym class and the next some monster basketballers are trying to kill me with flaming bronze balls! What the—"
Percy turned to me, his eyes were pleading, "I'm so sorry, and i'll explain everything later but for now we have to go."
"Go where?!" I exclaimed.
Percy ignored me and instead examined Tyson's hands, "Tyson," he said in disbelief. "Your hands aren't even burned."
"Of course not," Annabeth muttered. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with him around."
Tyson seemed fascinated by Annabeth's blond hair. He tried to touch it, but she smacked his hand away.
"Annabeth," Percy said, "what are you talking about? Laistry-what?"
"Laistrygonians. The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once, but I've never seen them as far south as New York before."
"Laistry—I can't even say that. What would you call them in English?"
She thought about it for a moment. "Canadians," she decided. "Now come on, we have to get out of here."
"The police'll be after us."
"That's the least of our problems," she said. "Have you been having the dreams?"
"The dreams ... about Grover?"
Her face turned pale. "Grover? No, what about Grover?"
"Does Grover happen to be a half goat guy in a wedding dress by any chance?" I asked, my dreams had been very strange recently.
Percy stared at me, "How do you know about that?"
I told them about my dreams, Percy's face grew more and more confused by the second. He then turned to Annabeth, "Why? What were you dreaming about?"
Her eyes looked stormy, like her mind was racing a million miles an hour.
"Camp," she said at last. "Big trouble at camp."
"My mom was saying the same thing! But what kind of trouble?"
"I don't know exactly. Something's wrong. We have to get there right away. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia, trying to stop me. Have you had a lot of attacks?"
Percy shook his head. "None all year ... until today."
"None? But how ..." Her eyes drifted to Tyson. "Oh."
"What do you mean, 'oh'?"
Tyson raised his hand like he was still in class. "Canadians in the gym called Percy something ... Son of the Sea God?"
