The Nature of a Demigod

Dancing in the Moonlight

[Percy's POV]

The Friday before winter break, my mom packed me an overnight bag and a few deadly weapons and took me to a new boarding school. We picked up my friends Y/N, Annabeth, and Thalia on the way.

It was an eight-hour drive from New York to Bar Harbor, Maine. Sleet and snow pounded the highway. My friends and I hadn't seen each other in months, but between the blizzard and the thought of what we were about to do, we were too nervous to talk much.

Except for my mom. She talks more when she's nervous. By the time we finally got to Westover Hall, it was getting dark, and she'd told Y/N, Annabeth, and Thalia every embarrassing baby story there was to tell about me.

"So, you're telling me he shot a cannonball at a school bus?" Y/N asked. My mom laughed like this was just the funniest thing in the world. "He shot a hole right through it. And he was hardly even 10 at the time. An old civil war cannon at a museum."

My friends laughed awkwardly in the back seat. "I didn't even know those cannons worked." Annabeth laughed. "I didn't either." My mom added.

Thalia wiped the fog off the car window and peered outside. "Oh, yeah. This'll be fun." Westover Hall looked like an evil knight's castle. It was all black stone, with towers and slit windows and a big set of wooden double doors.

It stood on a snowy cliff overlooking this big frosty forest on one side and the gray churning ocean on the other. We filed out of the car.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" my mother asked.

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

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

I hoped I wasn't blushing. It was bad enough I had to depend on my mom to drive me to my battles.

"We'll be fine, Mrs. Jackson. I'm here." Y/N said. "Nothing bad is gonna happen to him. You can trust me." his (H/C) hair had lengthened a bit over the semester, and he had grown a few inches taller. His bronze eyes still twinkled like the night sky.

Annabeth pinched his arm. He yelped. My mom laughed. "You better not be lying to me, Y/N." she said. Y/N's face turned red when my mom smiled at him joyfully.

"It's okay, Ms. Jackson." Annabeth smiled reassuringly. Her blond hair was tucked into a ski cap and her gray eyes were the same color as the ocean. "We'll keep him out of trouble." My mom seemed to relax a little. She thinks Annabeth is the most level headed demigod ever to hit eighth grade.

She's sure Annabeth often keeps us from getting killed. She's right, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. She claims Y/N is one of the nicer kids she's known and she found it hard to believe that his mother despised him.

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

"Yes, Ms. Jackson," Thalia said. "Thanks for the ride."

"Extra sweaters? You have my cell phone number?"

"Mom-"

"Can I have your number?" Y/N asked, laughing. I kicked him in the shin. "You don't even have a phone." I told him. My mom shook her head and smirked while he hopped around on one leg. "Your ambrosia and nectar, Percy? And a golden drachma in case you need to contact camp?"

"Mom, seriously! We'll be fine. Come on, guys."

She looked a little hurt, and I was sorry about that, but I was ready to be out of this weather already. If my mom told one more story about how cute I looked in the bathtub when I was three years old, I was going to burrow into the snow and freeze myself to death.