Son of the Moon

34

-Percy-

Pulling into a parking spot he sighed and cut the engine of the 1974 silver Camaro that Hephaestus and Apollo had given him for his birthday, Hermes having provided a driver's license that gave off a miniature mist field so that no cop would question him being old enough to drive without an adult or if he was speeding. Walking to the other side of the car he opened the door and let out Bianca as she laced her hands with his once the doors were locked before they both turned to face their greatest challenge to date…high school. It was technically just an orientation but Chiron and Dionysus were sending out as many search groups as possible to find more demigods, both to bolster their own numbers and to keep the numbers of the enemy to continue to grow. He was with Bianca at Goode High School while his friends were at different schools. Nico and Amanda were at a place called 'Yancy Academy', Nyssa and Will were paired up but he couldn't remember where, he knew that Beckendorf and Silena were at a college looking for demigods, and Clarisse was on some sort of quest for Chiron.

"So," Bianca asked him as they walked inside the school, "do you think that Chiron chose each of the groups to go to different schools as couples on purpose?".

"Probably." He said with a shrug as he wrapped an arm around her waist and held her close, their relationship having grown stronger by the day ever since they had been reunited "It gives them a reason to be close to each other that would make sense to mortals and if they disappear to get rid of a monster then people will just assume they snuck off somewhere to be alone.".

"I'm just glad that Nico and Amanda finally admitted that they liked each other." Bianca said with a small smile that held a clear memory of sadness as they remembered what had happened shortly after Annabeth had been dragged away to get the arrow wound in her shoulder treated the previous summer. Amanda had quickly pulled Nico aside so she could fully reassure herself that the son of Hades was truly back and safe as the daughter of Hermes had all but broken down in Nico's arms, sobbing and begging him not to leave her again as Nico had embraced the girl, promising to never leave her again if he could help it. When the two had kissed after the promise the camp had celebrated, his demigod brothers and sisters looking for any reason for merriment, for some way to push away the cloud of despair that had been hanging around the camp.

Nyssa and Will were some of the first to congratulate the new couple, the son of Apollo having asked the daughter of Hephaestus to be his girlfriend shortly after the group had left on the quest, not wanting to wait and risk losing Nyssa to another man or, worse, to the underworld. Beckendorf had thought the same and had gone and asked out the daughter of Aphrodite Silena Beauregard. Something interesting that he had learned was that the moment the daughter of Aphrodite had learned of Luke Castellan's death she had gone to Chiron and admitted to being a spy for Luke, how the bastard had threatened to murdered Beckendorf if she didn't pass him information but with the traitor son of Hermes dead she felt safe enough to confess and face her punishment.

The gods had decided to put her on a 'parole' of sorts with Beckendorf as her parole officer to keep an eye on her but not many held it against her, having understood why she had done what she did with the threat hanging over the head of the one she loved. The only one who was angry at the confession of the daughter of Aphrodite was Annabeth who insisted that Castellan wouldn't have made such a threat. Pushing those thoughts out of his head he walked inside the school, arm in arm with Bianca, neither of them noticing the wide eyed stare of a frizzy haired girl with marker stained jeans.

Soon they joined the crowd of four hundred odd fourteen and fifteen year olds walking into the gymnasium, crowded into the bleachers as a marching band played an out of tune fighting song that sounded like somebody hitting a bag of cats with a metal bat. A few older students, likely student council members, stood at the front near a podium, modelling the school uniform and trying to look cool in front of the freshmen as the teachers milled about and shook hands with the new students. Finally though a man in a pinstripe suit, probably the principal, stepped up to the podium and began a long and admittedly boring speech about student success which he tuned out as he stared at the various students, looking for any that gave off feelings of godly energy or had any other telltale signs of Olympian blood.