Reading Pjo: The Lightning Thief

My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind. shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

"Now that's how you drive! Like a badass!"

"No, that's how you'd bike ends up in my workshop."

"Well, I have to get around somehow!"

"All I'm saying is to go the normal speed limit and not crash every two months!"

"You're the one who fixes it all the time!"

"Ex-"

"Boys!" Aphrodite snapped.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.

"No, those are my legs." Grover said.

Percy snorted, "I was still trying to get used to you being a sytar."

But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting z00-lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

Grover glared at Percy, "Someday, another sytar is going to kill you, and I can't wait to watch."

"I know, I was still trying to get used to this, I didn't plan for my thoughts to get read out loud."

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom.... know each other?"

Nico faceplates and started laughing, "Percy, you idiot."

"I didn't know what else to say, I wasn't thinking clearly."

Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you!"

"Watching me? That's not creepy at all." I muttered the last part, but Grover must've heard me.

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend" he added hastily. "I am your friend."

Percy smiled, Grover was the best best-friend.

"Um... what are you, exactly?"

"Seriously, if it were any other sytar." Grover muttered.

"Just be lucky Coach Hedge isn't here." Hazel said.

Percy paled, "He'd beat my ass."

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter!" Nico said.

"You just said it didn't matter."

Nico gestured to Percy, "See, he gets it!"

"Blaa-ba-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like... the Greek Myths?"

"Obviously, Peter."

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"