ʙᴏᴏᴋ ɪ : 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙛 | 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Chapter 6

The next few days Percy settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that he was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.

Each morning he took Ancient Greek lessons from Annabeth, and they talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. He discovered Annabeth was right about his dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, he could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

The rest of the day, he'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something he was good at. The only thing he really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.

The senior campers and counselors were watching him, trying to decide who his dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it.

Despite all that, he liked the camp. Percy got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night.

Y/N would tag along and talk to him, make him feel at home. She didn't know if it was overwhelming for him, she just hoped not. Cause, the outdoor activities clearly wasn't for him. At times, she would tell him to throw something up in the sky, and then would try to aim and shoot it with her arrow.

She nailed it everytime.

She would often tell dad jokes that she heard from her step-father. It made Percy a bit jealous considering how awful his step-father was, but it looked like Y/N genuinely felt happy to talk about them. Surely, she missed them a lot.

He would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of his meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to his real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling he'd always had, like the memory of his smile. He tried not to think about his mother, but he still did. Y/N assured him that he will contact him soon, but she wasn't sure that she was the right person to talk about this to him. But she tried her best.

Percy started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. He just wondered how Y/N had it all together. How she still managed to remain positive inspite of not getting any kind of signal from her father.

Thursday afternoon, three days after he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, he had his first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be their instructor. And he finally found something he was good at. Percy, actually defeated Luke in a sword fight, even with unbalanced swords.

Y/N noticed all of it. Well, she observed him a lot. She didn't know what it was, but Percy was his new friend and watching him getting used to the camp was a bit funny. Specially when Chiron tried to teach him archery and later had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail. But, he didn't complain.

Ofcourse it was amusing. But when he defeated Luke in a sword fight, it made her think. Annabeth was right about him being useful in their team. He might be good, except there was also a lot of risk considering the way he picked a fight with Clarisse on his first day. He was interesting.

She approached him in the amphitheatre, when he was sitting alone.

"How are you catching up?" Y/N asked, "Congrats on your win against Luke! You're good at it!"

"Well, after losing so many times? I don't know."

"Hey, for someone to actually defeat that guy in a sword fight is a big deal for me," Y/N smiled, "Trust me, I lost way more times than you did."

"You can fight with a sword?"

"Uh..I'm practicing? I'm not that good." Y/N said as he looked back at her with a smile. Her heart did a flip.

"What was that?" she thought but brushed it off pretty quickly thinking it has to be because he was her first guy friend who spent a lot of time together. She cleared her mind and continued, "I heard from Grover about...your mother. I mean, I don't mean to pry but you...you're thinking that you can bring her back?"

Percy stayed quiet. Y/N nervously said, "Sorry, I mean. Look don't get your hopes up. But...I feel like..I mean...I heard how she vanished."

He looked at her. He looked a bit mad. Maybe she landed on a touchy subject. But he was her friend...and she wanted him to know something that she thought about the situation.

"Vanished, Percy. Why did she burst like that? That's not exactly how mortals...you get what I mean?"

His face changed colour, some hope. Y/N didn't know whether what she said would make him mad at her later.

"But, I also came here just a few months ago. I can be wrong about it."

Annabeth has been coming up with plans for capture the flag. It did involve Percy and it looked like he might also get hurt in the process. At first Y/N tried to tell her to find another way, but she reassured her saying, "Hey, you can cure him if he did gets hurt." And she couldn't complain.

Besides, Annabeth's plans never failed.

The day arrived and Y/N was in her cabin when Annabeth knocked on the door.

"I'm ready!" she said, as Annabeth came in.

"Wait," Annabeth said, "Look, I get it you're close to Percy but I hope you didn't tell him about our plans."

Y/N blushed and stuttered, "C-Close? I just thought we are new kids here so we should get along. Besides, you don't trust me?"

She smirked and said, "You are spending a lot of time with him. Like more than anyone else. Everyone has noticed."

"Wait...do they think...that I'm hitting on him or something?"

"Not everyone, but just the Aphrodite cabin." Annabeth chuckled, "I'm glad you found a friend. Trust me, it's a relief to see you talk to someone and get involved cause.."

"I know, I find it hard to get along with people but I try my best. Besides," Y/N smiled, "Percy made it easier for me too."

"Hey, not to be...rude but you really don't like him that way?"

Y/N blushed and said, "N-No! How did you come to that conclusion? We just...get along really well. And he's funny when you get to know him. We share our tragedy stories of our schools too."

"Fine...then just tell me something. Did you ever sing to him? Or while thinking of him? Hum a tune or something? Just asking."

"No, why?" Y/N asked surprised, "I mean, we do spend time. But we don't have THAT much time to sing along and take a break."

Annabeth smirked and said, "Okay, let's go."

"Why did you ask though?"

"Nothing, just wanted to know if he ever heard you sing solo."

"Well, okay." Y/N said and walked out of the cabin with Annabeth following her closely behind.

It might not ever cross Y/N's mind, but Annabeth observed something that she didn't. This girl sang to people who were close to her. So far, only Alex, Luke and her got the chance to hear her sing. And both of them heard a tune, that made them feel the music, and how great it was to be friends with her.

Annabeth just wanted to know if her friend sang it to the seaweed brain. Whether it was the same tune, or something different. It would all be clear to her then.