ℚ𝕦𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕠𝕗 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕤 | ℙ𝕁𝕆 𝟙

♡V♡

You may be wondering how I ended up sitting at a table playing pinochle with a half-horse and the god of wine. Well, I am too. I had heard Percy was awake, and, being a somewhat good friend, I wanted to see him and make sure he was okay. But, instead I was stopped by Chiron and Dionysus, who needed another player for their game.

So I said yes.

and here I was, losing miserably and questioning the meaning of life. Fun.

Our game, thankfully, was disrupted when a familiar satyr and the boy of the hour came around the corner, and the confused demigod halted in his steps at the sight of me. He looked to my left and his eyes widened, "Mr Brunner?"

The man in question turned around, smiling fondly when he saw Percy. "Ah, good, Percy, now we have enough for Pinochle." Mr D waved his hand and the invisible man we were playing with dropped his cards, im guessing he was sent away, and I groaned at the thought of having to play even more rounds. Its not that I didn't like the game, I just didn't like losing. And I lost a lot.

He took the chair that Chiron offered him, and I smiled at him nervously, which he then returned. Chiron cleared his throat, giving Mr D a pointed look, and the latter sighed. "Oh, I suppose I must say it, welcome to camp half-blood. There. Now don't expect me to be glad to see you."

Percy looked over to me as if asking for help, and I gave him a weak shrug, not being able to do anything about the god's indifference. "Annabeth?" Chiron called out, breaking the silence that had fallen across the table. "this young lady nursed you back to health with the help of Valentina, Percy," stopping, he turned to the blonde, "Why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin 11 for now." She nodded, sent me a small smile and then turned to assess the boy.

"You drool when you sleep." And then she was dashing down the hill to where the small formation of cabins were, all aligned in a 'U' shape. I giggled a bit, only stopping when I saw my friend's disgruntled face, and had to bite into my hand to stop myself from laughing at his expression.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, he shifted his gaze to our former teacher. "So, uh, Mr Brunner, you uh, work here?" I leaned back in my seat, looking at the centaur.

"Not Mr Brunner." He said with a warm look in his eyes as he looked down at him.

"okay..." he trailed off, looking even more confused.

I shuffled in my seat, "Chiron. You can call him Chiron." Wincing as all eyes turned to me, I sank ever so slightly in my seat.

"And Mr D... does that stand for something?" My eyes widened as Percy said that, and I shook my head repeatedly at him but he took no notice.

The camp director stopped shuffling the deck of cards, his eyes darkening. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"Oh. Right, sorry."

"I must say, Percy," Chiron broke in, possibly saving him from being turned into a dolphin or a mole-rat, "Im glad to see you alive. Its been a long time since I've received a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I'd wasted my time.

"House call?"

"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have Satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover and Valentina alerted me as soon as they met you. They sensed something special about you, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other teacher to, ah, take a leave of absence."

I remembered at the beginning of the school year we had another teacher, a chipper young woman with choppy brown hair and a wide smile. She was nice, but nothing could beat our mentor. She had disappeared suddenly and our lives went on.