Luminesence (Slow Updates)

005

The next few days were torture, just like Tantalus wanted.

First there was Tyson moving into the Poseidon cabin, giggling to himself every fifteen seconds and saying, "Percy is my brother?" like he'd just won the lottery.

"Aw, Tyson," Percy would say. "It's not that simple."

But there was no explaining it to him. He was in heaven. I feel bad that he has to deal with a brother who a monster. The most untrustworthy ones at that.

The all-powerful Poseidon, had gotten moony-eyed for some nature spirit, and Tyson had been the result. There are many myths about Cyclopes. They were often Poseidon's children.

And then there were the comments from the other campers. Suddenly, he wasn't Percy Jackson, the cool guy who'd retrieved Zeus's lightning bolt last summer. Now he was Percy Jackson, the poor fucker with the ugly monster for a brother.

"He's not my real brother!" Percy protested whenever Tyson wasn't around. "He's more like a half- brother on the monstrous side of the family. Like ... a half-brother twice removed, or something."

Nobody bought it.

Annabeth tried to make him feel better. She suggested they team up for the chariot race to take their minds off problems. She had asked Phaedra if she wanted but in her words she "didn't want to caught dead in this race which is exactly how she'll end up because of the past races"

Phaedra was more worried sick about camp and Thalia, but she didn't know what to do about it.

Until they could come up with some brilliant plan to save Thalia's tree, they figured they might as well go along with the races...well with Phaedra watching from the stands. After all, Annabeth's mom, Athena, had invented the chariot, and Poseidon had created horses. Together Percy and Annabeth would own that track.

One morning Annabeth, Phaedra and Percy were sitting by the canoe lake sketching chariot designs when some jokers from Aphrodite's cabin walked by and asked Percy if he needed to borrow some eyeliner for his eye ... "Oh sorry, eyes."

As they walked away laughing, Annabeth grumbled, "Just ignore them, Percy. It isn't your fault you have a monster for a brother." Phaedra nodded.

"He's not my brother!" He snapped. "And he's not a monster, either!"

Phaedra raised her eyebrows then rolled her eyes. "Hey, don't get mad at her! You're claiming he's not your brother but we all saw the trident above his head Percy we're not hallucinating. And technically, he is a monster."

"Well you gave him permission to enter the camp."

"Becauseitwastheonlywaytosaveyourlife!" Phaedra rushed out. "I mean ... I'm sorry, Percy, I didn't expect Poseidon to claim him. Cyclopes are the most deceitful, treacherous-"

"He is not! What have you got against Cyclopes, anyway?"

Phaedra's face turned red and she closed her while glaring at the son of Poseidon.

"Look, just forget it," Annabeth said. "Now, the axle for this chariot-"

"You're both treating him like he's this horrible thing," Percy said. "He saved my life."

Annabeth threw down her pencil and stood. "Then maybe you should design a chariot with him."

"Maybe I should."

"Fine!"

"Fine!" She stormed off and left Percy feeling even worse than before.

Percy turned to look at the girl behind him. She shook her head, "Don't look at me for anything. You sit there and get mad at us because we're not very fond of your monster brother. Meanwhile you treat him the same way no matter how nice you seem to him on the outside. Don't talk to me about the right thing if you can't even do it yourself."