Backbiter by Annabeth Chase

Chapter Fifteen: Athena

Having Thalia at camp was like a strange dream. I had spent six years wishing I could show her the camp and share it with her, but it also made Luke's absence that much more obvious. It hurt that he had managed to bring her back but wasn't here with us. Regardless of that and my stupid dreams, I tried to focus on the things that were good and happy. Grover was able to stick around for the rest of the summer and Percy and Thalia were getting along surprisingly well.

They were constantly trying to outdo each other, always racing and sparing. They learned a lot from each other and pushed themselves hard, but they also argued a lot. If things got too heated between them Grover or I would try to step in and get them to cool off but usually that just ended with them both yelling at us instead of each other.

At the end of July Percy, Thalia, Grover and I were hanging out on the beach and Percy asked the question we were all trying to avoid. "What are you all doing for the school year?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "My dad wants me to come home but with everything happening ... I just don't know if I would feel comfortable being that far away. I wouldn't be able to help out if something went wrong again."

"I'm going back to being a protector for the year. Chiron wants to recruit all the kids we can possibly find, and you know, make sure we get to them before Luke and his army," Grover said glumly. We knew he would rather be out looking for Pan, but he was a great protector.

"If anyone can manage to find powerful half-bloods, it's you," Thalia said. "You're the best satyr around and soon you'll be able to get back out there and find Pan!"

"Exactly but make sure you call us if you need help with anything or to bail you out of a cyclops wedding," Percy said cheerfully. "What about you, Thalia? Are you planning on staying at camp for the school year?"

"I guess," she shrugged. "I don't really have anywhere else to go, although it would be nice to leave. I just feel kind of suffocated here sometimes. I'd rather be out doing things, fighting monsters, living in the open, instead of in that mausoleum my dad calls a cabin."

"Maybe you guys could find a boarding school here in New York," Percy suggested. "Then you'd be close but not stuck at camp all year."

"That would be great, but I have had literally zero schooling since I was nine," Thalia said. "I only know how to read because Annabeth taught me, and I've been a tree for the past six years so I don't know how that would even work."

But Percy had given me an idea and I was starting to formulate it into a plan that might actually work. We could both go to the same school; I could teach her, and we could pop back to camp if something was needed. If we went to a school nearby, I could be kind of between my dad and camp and visit both.

"If we went to the same school, I could help you with your schoolwork and we could fabricate credentials. Camp did that for me last year. Then we could come back to camp on the weekends to train and help out!" I was starting to get excited and bouncing up and down. I looked at Thalia expectantly to see if she liked my idea.

"How would you go to school and still have time to tutor me?" Thalia asked, putting a hand on my head, "and stop bouncing. I always feel like you are going to fly away, just bounce yourself into the sky and never come back down."

"Oh, it'd be fine, last year I got through all of middle school and was starting on high school stuff," I explained. "So, if we go back to, say eighth grade I should be able to tutor you without much of a problem and if we start now, my siblings and I could probably teach you most of the basics before camp is over."

"Seriously, all of middle school? In one year?" Grover was staring at me like I'd grown an extra head or something.

"Dude, you can't be surprised by that," Percy said. "You've known her for longer than I have. She doesn't even need school. She already knows everything, why would she need to learn it."

"I don't know everything, I just ... really like learning. My dad had me in online classes last year, so I just blew through them. Most schools go really slowly," I shrugged before turning back to Thalia. "So, what do you think? Can I tutor you? We can find a school and it will be great!"