Half Blood High

Part 6 ~ Perachel

“Good job, little cousin! Now do it blindfolded.”

Percy stared at his cousin, Thalia, from the water. “Should I remind you that I am taller? Or just come out and get you wet?”

A girl with bright red, curly hair walked over to Percy and leaned down towards the water before Thalia could answer.

“Are you Percy Jackson?”

“The one and only. Are you new? I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“Hi. I’m Rachel, just transferred here yesterday. I would like to get an interview with you for the school paper.”

“The only way to do that is to get in the water, because I’m not finished with my training for the day, yet.”

She shrugged. “Good thing my recorder is waterproof. I’ll be back in a minute.”

She winked at Percy on her way towards the locker rooms. In a few minutes, Rachel came back in a one-piece suit covered in paint splotches.

She slid in next to Percy and set her recorder on the pool deck.

“This is just a few questions. So Percy, what is it like to be the most popular boy in school?”

“Oh, everyone knows to get out of your way when you head down the halls. They know you are in command, and they know when to leave you alone, usually.”

“What do you mean ‘usually’?”

“Sometimes people just don’t know when to stop, or when they have gone too far.”

“Would you care to explain?”

“What more is to explain? Everyone would know who I am talking about: the boy who breaks into lockers, brings weapons to school. The one who will stalk you all the way home. Next Question.”

Rachel kept listing off questions and then turned her recorder off. “That should be all I will need.”

“Great. But before you can have it, you have to catch me.” Percy grabbed the recorder from her hands and started for the other end of the pool. Rachel swam after him and caught him in the deep end.

“Reach! Reach up high!”

Rachel jumped but couldn’t grab it, so she finally kissed Percy to distract him, and was able to get her device as his arm came down.

“Thank you!” She pushed him out of the way, got out of the water and headed for the locker rooms.

Thalia handed Percy a towel. “That was interesting.”

Percy started wiping away some of the water. “She was interesting.”

“Jason would have loved to see that. Where is my brother?”

“In detention. He got in a fight with Octavian, again.”

“He really needs to stop doing that.”

“Octavian needs to stop following us.”

“True. Go change, little cousin. I’ll see you later.”