The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

four

NASTY BIRDS

The next few days were torture, just like
Tantalus wanted.

First there was Tyson moving into the Poseidon cabin, giggling to himself every fifteen seconds and saying, "Percy is my brother?" like he'd just won the lottery.

"Aw, Tyson." Percy would say. "It's not that simple."

But there was no explaining it to him. He was in heaven. Percy nor Ariana wanted to burst his bubble.

And then there were the comments from the other campers. Suddenly, he wasn't Percy Jackson, the cool guy who'd retrieved Zeus's lightning bolt last summer.

Now he was Percy Jackson, the poor schmuck with the ugly monster for a brother.

"He's not my real brother!" He protested whenever Tyson wasn't around. "He's more like a half-brother on the monstrous side of the family. Like ... a half-brother twice removed, or something."

Nobody bought it.

Percy did admit - he was angry at his dad. He felt like being his son was now a joke.

Annabeth tried to make him feel better. She suggested they teamed up for the chariot race to take their minds off their problems.

They all hated Tantalus and they were worried sick about camp - but they didn't know what to do about it.

Until they could come up with some brilliant plan to save Thalia's tree, they figured they might as well go along with the races.

After all, Annabeth's mom, Athena, had invented the chariot, and Percy's dad had created horses. Together they'd would own that track.

Ariana decided not to join in on the races, saying it would be too easy to beat them all.

One morning the trio were sitting by the canoe lake sketching chariot designs when some jokers from Aphrodite's cabin walked by and asked Percy if he needed to borrow some eyeliner for his eye ... "Oh, sorry, eyes."

As they walked away laughing, Annabeth grumbled, "Just ignore them, Percy. It isn't your fault you have a monster for a brother."

"He's not my brother!" He snapped. "And he's not a monster, either!"

Ariana went silent.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "Hey, don't get mad at me! And technically, he is a monster."

"Well, you gave him permission to enter the camp."

"Because it was the only way to save your life! I mean ... I'm sorry, Percy, I didn't expect Poseidon to claim him. Cyclopes are the most deceitful, treacherous."

"He is not! What have you got against Cyclopes, anyway?"

Annabeth's ears turned pink. "Just forget it," she said. "Now, the axle for this chariot -"

"You're treating him like he's this horrible thing." Percy said. "He saved mine and Arianas life!"

"Hey!" Ariana said. "Don't bring me into this!"

Annabeth threw down her pencil and stood.
"Then maybe you should design a chariot with him."

"Maybe I should."

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

She stormed off and left them.

Over the next few days Annabeth and Percy didn't speak to each other; leaving Ariana to feel like she was stuck in the middle.