Working With The Thief (Percy Jackson)

Chapter Seventeen: Nobody Cares About The Quest Anymore

Grover Underwood

Was I planning on sleeping in my bed that night?

Yes, yes I was.

Did I fall asleep ten minutes before the movie ended and wake up really confused because I was sleeping on Percys floor wrapped in a blanket, with a pillow and an empty bowl of popcorn next to me?

Yes, yes I did.

Seeing it was still pretty early, I got up and figured I'd let Percy sleep. Went to my little cabin, got dressed for the day, and started towards the Pavilion for breakfast when I ran into Michael Yew, the counselor for the Apollo cabin. He was only a year older than Percy, Annabeth, and I, but he was the next oldest in the cabin after their old counselor left for college last summer. He's been here for a few years now, maybe four? He's a nice guy.

"Grover, hey!" The son of Apollo called out. "How did the quest go? I mean, you're all here so it couldn't be awful, but... Mr. D told me that if I see you that he wants to talk to you, and same for Percy and I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing, especially for Percy? I haven't really talked to him much, but he got the bolt back, right? Because he didn't steal it."

"He didn't, Ares had it," I confirmed, nodding my head. "I... Don't know why Mr. D would want to talk to him, actually. Maybe just checking in since quests can be stressful and he's new?"

Michael shrugged.

"Beats me, man," he said. "Good luck— don't get turned into a dolphin."

With that, I veered course to the Big House, where Mr. D and Chiron seemed to be debating back and forth about something as Chiron grabbed his stuff for archery class since he teaches the morning section.

"Who— oh, Grover, hello!" The centaur greeted me with a smile. "Good morning, we were hoping we'd get to grab you for a few minutes today. Do you have time before breakfast?"

"Yes, sirs," I responded. "Michael told me you guys were looking for me. Is everything okay?"

"Well—" Mr. D's voice made me stiffen up. "Oh, take a breath and relax, Grover. Sit down This has nothing to do with your searchers license, we'll talk about that later."

"It doesn't?" I asked, sitting down. "What's going on then?"

"We're in a little bit of a... Conundrum, I suppose you could call it," Mr. D told me as he leaned back into his chair. "Percy's been claimed by one of the eldest gods, which means that the Great prophecy is in motion."

How does Mr. D always manage to tell me the things I least want to hear and be reminded of?

I swear to gods, Dionysus is the god of wine, parties, leapoards, and ruining Grover's day.

"...this is true." I said. "He's only 12, though, so we have... Time, right? To prepare for whatever will happen when he turns 16?"

"If he turns 16," Chirons supplemented, which I didn't need or want to hear.

"If the kid doesn't turn 16, I—" Mr. D began in a defensive tone before the door of the Big House opened again, Luke and Annabeth stood in the doorway.

"We— oh, tense atmosphere, alright," Luke commented as he stepped inside with Annabeth. "What's going on? Michael told us to stop here before breakfast."

"One moment," Mr. D said before returning his attention to Chiron and I was wondering what kind of lovers quarrels they'd had about this in the last three weeks since Percy was claimed for Mr. D to become do defensive about a kid he's threatened to turn into a dolphin already. "I'm going to be crystal clear about this: the kid is turning 16. I don't care if we have to wrap him in bubble wrap and put baby gates around his cabin, he's turning 16."