Reading Pjo: The Lightning Thief

I Become Surpreme Lord Of The Bathroom

I Become Supreme Lord Of The Bathroom

Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.

"The Macy's Day Parade? When and why?"

"When I was ten, eleven, and just that year when I was twelve, and I did it for money."

"Oh."

"Scooping poop sounds gross."

"It was, but the horses were pretty cool, of course, at the time I thought I was just going insane."

We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."

"That sounds awful."

Luke shrugged, "It's what happens in these situations, especially with powerful demigods. It's what happened to Annabeth, Grover, and I when Thalia sacrificed herself."

Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.

"Can you do a flip or something?"

"Yeah, I had a few... friends? Buddies? Or whatever, who taught us how to do cool tricks if we weren't doing anything or wanted to get out our houses."

I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized— four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable.
Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.

"You saw it move?" Apollo asked, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, it moved again in a few years I think."

"That's amazing! Do I get a new oracle?"

"That's spoilers, 'Pollo."

"I can't believe you saw it move! No one's ever seen it move before, except Chiron, but we thought that was just a take."

"What can he say," Nico nudged Percy in his side, "Prophecies really like Percy."

"'Course they do!" Silena said with Aphrodite giggling in the background.

"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.

He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"Something lives there." Both Annabeths corrected.

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.

"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

"And grapes."John added.