Mortals meet demigods

Alice Elizabeth Parker

She slashed through the water, her arms sliding gracefully in and out of the water as she swam her freestyle laps. Alice Elizabeth Parker was in the midst of a swim meet with her incredibly competitive club. She flipped at the end of the lane and amped up the speed for her last length. The other swimmers were lagging behind, some by half a length, others by a full 2 laps. Alice came in to the wall and practically slapped it in her eagerness to finish. She hopped onto the side of the pool and took her goggles off. Alice had been swimming in the last event of the meet, so there was only one other person from her club still swimming. She walked over the leader of the college swim club, Percy Jackson, dripping as she went. He handed Alice's towel to her, while his eyes were still glued to the other swimmers. Their last teammate finished quickly and climbed out of the pool. The medals were given out in record time on the deck.

Percy called for everyone to gather around. "Alrighty! That was awesome, everyone! Congrats to Mark, Alice and Harry on their golds. Eddy, I'm glad to see how much you've improved since last meet, your butterfly is looking fantastic. The relays and medley's were great, although there were a few slip-ups on the transitions of swimmers. We'll practice that next weekend."

He looked at Alice, his second in command as the second fastest swimmer on the team, for anything she wanted to add. "No, I think you've got it all. Minus your own pool record, of course." There was a round of clapping and Percy blushed modestly. "Please make sure that you all do some stretching and eat something after this, it was a big meet and we all seem to be pretty tired. Good job, guys. We'll see you next Sunday."

All the guys gradually made their way out of the pool, leaving just Alice and Percy from their team helping with clean-up. They made short work of it with the help of Noah, Alice's boyfriend, and quite a few other people.

Percy had introduced them all to Alice after a lot of back thumping and cheers. "You know Annabeth of course. Then there's Jason and Piper, Frank and Hazel, Leo and Calypso, Connor, Travis and Katie- Connor and Travis are brothers, by the way, watch out for them, you never know what they're getting up too-"

Katie levelled the brothers with a very pointed look. "Travis promised me no extensive pranking or mischief, and Connor prefers to do it with him, so we'll be fine. Won't we, boys?"

Travis squeaked, "Yes, ma'am."

Percy continued naming his friends, "And that's Nico and Will, and last is Thalia. She's scary."

Thalia snorted, "We're going to your place right, Kelp Head? Pool party, you said? Which I protest greatly, for your information."

Jason patted her back comfortingly, "You don't have to go in, Thals. Neither do you, Nico. We can all remain safely on dry land. Unlike the occasional sea animal and Lord of the fish over there."

Annabeth smiled at their antics. "Would you like to join us, Alice?"

The swimmer in question nodded. "Can Noah come? I can drive there."

"Sure! We'll see you at Seaweed Brain and mine!"

Alice's thoughts had a flash of confusion, amusement, bafflement, dishevelment and all of the above at once. Their nicknames were so odd, although Alice did appreciate that they had a theme for Percy.

Percy shared a quaint and charming house with Annabeth. They had a pool in their backyard and the designated office had been transformed into a library. Alice found it beautiful. There were cool grey and blue colours throughout the house. Alice could easily tell that Percy had not been the one to design the interior of the home. It was a perfect balance of ship lash and photos of marine animals, and historical photos and Athenian-inspired decor. There was even a wall with names written all over it and the occasional photo. Alice spotted an altar on her way through Percy and Annabeth's house to the backyard.

Alice and Noah stepped out of the house and onto a cute little stone patio, their hands intertwined. All of Percy and Annabeth's friends were already sitting on the chairs or swimming in their pool. The pool itself took up the majority of the backyard, with some grass and gardens in between the pool and patio. Alice saw Percy sitting on the edge of the diving board at the edge of the pool. It was built into the ground and had coloured lights that lit up the pool. It wouldn't be long until the lights were a stark contrast to the dark of the night.

"Noah, Alice! You're here! " Frank called out to them. He came over to the couple and completed a handshake with the young man. Alice got the idea they knew each well.

Noah explained without having to be prompted, "Alice, you know what these guys are right?" She nodded. They were demigods, Percy had been forced to reveal that a while ago, and it was simple to figure out the relation between them all. "Well, Frank is a son of Mars, and I'm a son of Ares. I'm sorry I hadn't told you before, I didn't want to make you have to deal with it. But Percy told me you already knew he was a demigod the other day. I didn't know how to bring it up before."

Alice placed a comforting hand on her boyfriend's arm, he looked torn up and guilty about not having told her. "No worries, Noah. That's not exactly something you can easily just go 'hey, by the way, I'm only half mortal and get attacked by monsters sometimes. Don't worry if that happens, and please don't freak out.' 'Cause now I'm used to the idea of my friends being demigods so I won't freak out now, but I definitely freaked out when Percy came into swim practice bleeding that one time."

She smiled as Noah chuckled and shook his head in amusement. Annabeth emerges from the house with a letter in her hand and calls for Alice and Percy. "There's a letter addressed to the two of you, about the meet, no doubt."

Percy took it from her and opened it without looking at the envelope or any hesitation. It was written in a scrawling script and a language that was clearly not English, but seemed to flow easily to Alice's eyes. He read it out loud, "'Dear Percy and Alice Elizabeth Parker. My son and my legacy, congratulations on your swim meet."

Percy blinked and exchanged a look with Alice before continuing. "I see it went well, and the both of you swam excellently. Best of luck to you each on your up and coming finals. If you are half as proficient in your academic abilities as you are your swimming abilities, I'm sure you will excel. My son, you must visit us down in Atlantis sometime soon, yes? My legacy, best of luck in this world.' Signed Poseidon."

Alice nodded in thought. "Guess I'm not as mortal as I thought I was. What should we do-"

Noah cut her off by mumbling her name and pointing above her head weakly. "No where close. You're a daughter of Athena too."

She looked up and saw the glowing owl. Alice's jaw dropped.

Annabeth smiled at the newly claimed demigod, "Welcome to cabin 6, Alice Elizabeth Parker. We're sisters."

Leo whooped and cracked a can of pop open in celebration. The shocked air around the group quickly turned to panic as they ran at Leo to stop him from chugging back pure caffeine and sugar. Noah laughed at them and threw an arm around his girlfriend. "You good?"

She nodded, "just wasn't expecting that."

"None of us are ever expecting it. But welcome to the gang!" He turned to her and pecked her on the lips. 

A request from @PineconeFace06 . Thank you!!