Changing the Future

Chapter 30

Maintaining cover as a college student while also running errands for the gods during the school year was becoming increasingly difficult as the inevitable war with Kronos approached. From what Chiron told me, many campers were fleeing, afraid to fight against the Titan lord and his monstrous army. The lack of demigods made the gods increasingly concerned, so the second that they knew a child of theirs was of age, they would send me to go and bring them to camp.

I thought it was sickening, honestly, only paying attention to your children to train them to fight in a war that they weren't aware of. But I also knew if we didn't have the numbers, we were going to be crushed.

We needed at least fifty kids to fight, and as far as I'm aware, there are only ten year-rounders left, and I have no idea who will show up this summer. I started listing names in my head: Percy, Annabeth, Will, Cleo, Michael, Clarisse, Lee, Beckendorf, Luke... That wasn't good.

"Andy!" Pete shouted, chucking an eraser cap at my face, which harmlessly bounced off my forehead. I glared at him in annoyance, causing him to shrink in his seat. "Geez, sorry for interrupting your daydream, but if you don't help us, we're all doomed."

"You two are," Leah said, swiping at her iPad's screen, most likely going through old notes. "Andy and I will be fine."

"Because unlike you two, Joe and I try to live a little."

"Not helping," Joe hissed, elbowing Pete's ribs. "Please, Andy, we need your help."

I nodded, opening my own notebook and re-explaining the past two week's lessons, hoping that my wording would help them understand. I hated thermodynamics with a passion, but Dr. Atomos had deemed it a necessary evil for our next chapter, meaning we teamed up with Mr. Hutchins' physics class for two weeks, learning the basics.

Now our test was tomorrow, and of course, Pete and Joe had procrastinated going over the notes and homework, causing them to freak out. This led to our impromptu study session, which explains why the four of us were in the school's library at nine at night.

"You seem distracted, A," Leah said, looking up from her iPad, a frown on her lips. "Are you worried about tomorrow's test?"

"No," I answered, running an exasperated hand through my messy hair.

I've had to bring three different kids to camp in the span of two days while also balancing my crazy amounts of homework and lab time, meaning I was practically running on zero sleep. I'm sure that I've drank enough coffee at this point that it's replaced my blood.

And if there's anything I learned about my luck, I was going to be called out on another mission again pretty soon, possibly even tonight. Gods, I hope not. It's nice to save children and all, but I need to sleep before this test, or I'm going to make careless mistakes that will screw up my grade.

Sure enough, as I went to begin explaining the intricacies of the laws of thermodynamics, my phone went off. Don't worry, Hephaestus added a monster-proof chip, but sadly, I could only contact the Olympians and Chiron with the phone.

"Hello?" I asked, scowling at my phone. One night this week, that's all I wanted for myself. Was that so much to ask for?

"Andy, we've got a situation," I heard Dionysus say.

"Which is?"

"There is dark magic at camp, power I haven't felt since I was a demigod. Get over here immediately."

"Yes, sir." I groaned as I ended the call, leaning forward so that my forehead rested on the table.

"Everything okay?" Pete asked.