Chapter 22: The Prophecy Comes True

WE were the first heroes to come back alive at Camp-Half blood, so everybody treated us as if we had won a contest or something. According to camp tradition, us heroes had to wear laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared for our accomplishment. Anyways, being the son of Poseidon, I still didn't have any roommates, so the Ares cabin had volunteered to make my shroud. They used an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with X'ed out eyes around the border, and the word LOSER was painted really big in the middle of the bedsheet. It looked really fun to burn the shroud. As Apollo's cabin led all the music and passed out the food, I was surrounded by my old Ares cabin mates, Annabeth's friends from Athena and Grover's satyr buddies, who were admiring the brand new seacher's licence he had received from the Council of Cloven Elders. The only ones, who looked like they didn't want to party were Clarisse and her cabinmates, and everytime I looked at them their faces looked like they would never forgive me after disgracing their dad. But that was okay, I can get over it. Even Dionysus's welcome back speech wasn't enough to dampen my spirits, is announcement was, "Yes, yes, so that little brat didn't kill himself, but now he will have a bigger head. In other announcements, there will be no canoe races this saturday." I wondered why there was no canoe races, was it because I would win each race I was in, or what. Anyways, I moved back to cabin three, but I didn't feel so alone anymore. I had my friends to train with everyday. At night, I lay awake and listen to the sea, knowing that my father is out there somewhere. Maybe he wasn't quite sure about me yet, he didn't want me to be born, but I know he is watching me. At least, he is proud about what I had done. As for my mother, she had a chance for a better and a new life. Her letter arrived a week after I had been to camp. She told me that Gabe had left mysteriously without telling her, my mother reported Gabe to the police, but she had a funny feeling that it will be almost impossible to find him. My mother also sold her first life size concrte sculpture, named The Poker Player, to a collector, through an art gallery in Soho. Surprisingly, she got a lot of money for the sculpture, she had put a deposit down on a new apartment and made a payment on her first semester's tuition at NYU. At the bottom of the letter, she wrote a P.S, "Percy I have found a good private school here in the city, I have put a deposit down to hold you a spot, in case you want to go to seventh grade. But if you want to go year round at Camp, I will understand." Every night before I went to sleep, I read over and over, trying to think about how to answer her.

On the fourth of July, the whole camp gathered at the beach for a fireworks display by cabin nine. The Hephaestus kids weren't going to settle for lame red white and blue fire works. They had anchored a barge off shore and put a lot of rockets in it, the size of Patriot missiles. Annabeth had seen this show before, and told me that the blasts would be sequenced so tightly they would lock like frames of animation across the sky. She also told me that the finale was supposed to be a couple of a hundred foot tall Spartan warriors who would crakle to life above the ocean, fight a battle, then explode into a million of colors. As Annabeth and I were spreading a picnic basket, Grover showed up to tell us good bye. He was dressed like his usual self, wearing jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers, but in the last few weeks Grover looked like he had grew older, almost High school age. His goatee had gotten thicker, he gained a lot of weight, and he had to wear his rasta hat everyday because his horns grew longer. I tried to feel happy for him. After all, it wasn't everyday a satyr got permission to look for the great God Pan. It was hard saying bye, to Grover. I had only known Grover for a year, yet he was my oldest friend. Annabeth gave him a hug and I wished him good luck. I asked him where he was going to search at first. He wouldn't tell me, because it was a secret. I'm gonna miss Grover, and I hope that he becomes the first satyr to find Pan and come back alive. He had to be the first one to come back, I could feel it.

July passed. I spent days trying to make new strategies for capture the flag and making alliances with the other cabins to keep the banner out of Ares's hands. I got too the top of the climbing wall for the first time without getting hurt and burnt by the lava. From time to time, I would walk past the Big house, look up at the attic windows, and think about the Oracle. I tried to convince myself that the Oracle's prophecy had come to completion. I knew what the Oracle said to me. I can explain it, now. "You shall go west, and face the God who has turned." That God turned out to be Ares rather than I expected, which was Hades. "You shall find what was stolen, and see it safe returned." One master bolt delivered. And the Helm of Darkness back on Hades's head. "You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend." This one was still bothering me. Ares had pretended to be my friend, then betrayed me. I guess this is what the Oracle meant. "And you shall fail to save what matters the most, in the end." I failed to save my mom, but only because I had let her save herself, I knew that was the right thing to do. But I still saved her.

The last night of the summer session came all too quickly. All the campers had one last meal together. Then we burned part of our dinner for the Gods. At the bonfire, the senior counselors awarded the end of summer beads. I got my own leather necklace, and when I saw the bead for my first summer, I was glad the firelight covered my blushing. The design was pitch black, with a sea green trident shimmering in the center. Luke gave me the bead and he announced, "This bead represents the first Son of the Sea God at this camp, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!" Everybody went on their feet and cheered for me. Even the Ares cabin stood up and cheered for me. Athena's cabin steered Annabeth to the front so she could share in the applause. I'm not sure I would ever feel happy or sad as I did at that moment. I finally found a family, that cared for me, and thought i had done something right. But then, most of them would be leaving in the morning, for the year. The next morning, I found a form letter on my bedside table. I knew Dionysus must have filled the letter out, because he stubbornly insisted on getting my name wrong. This is another thing about ADHD. Deadlines aren't real to me until I am reading one in the face. Summer was already over and I still hadn't answered my mother if I was staying at Camp-Half Blood or not. Now I had only a few hours to decide whether or not I should stay at the camp or not. The decision should have been easy. I mean nine months of hero training and nine months of sitting in a classroom. But there was my mom to think about, still. For the first time, I had the chance to live with her for a whole year, and the best part about it was that I won't be seeing Smelly Gabe anymore, Thank God. The campgrounds were mostly deserted, shimmering in the August heat. All the campers were in their cabins packing up, or running around with brooms and mops, getting ready for the final inspection. Argus, by the way, was helping some of the Aphrodite kids roll their Gucci suitcases and makeup kits over the hill, where the camp's shuttle bus would be waiting to take them to the airport. I told myself, "Don't think about leaving yet, Just train." I went to the sword fighters arena and found that Luke had had the same idea. He was there working solo, whaling on battle dummies with a sword I had never seen before. His orange counselor's shirt was dripping with sweat. His expression was so intense, his life might have really in danger. Finally, he noticed me and took out a six pack of cokes. I stared at the cokes wondering how Luke had gotten them. There were no mortal sodas at the camp store, but I took it anyway, what will it do to me. Luke asked me if I wanted to o down to the woods and looked for some monsters lying around there. Then all of a sudden Luke summoned a scorpion that can kill anyone in 60 seconds. I started to go for my pen. Luke warned me, "I wouldn't do that, Pit scorpions can jump up to 15 feet. Its stinger can pierce right through you clothes." Something hit me, "You will be betrayed by one who calls you friend." "You." I said. He was the one that was going to betray me. Luke told me that he had been having dreams exactly like the dreams I used to had. The scorpion went on my leg. "Kronos, that's the person you served. He told you to steal the Helm and the Master Bolt, Kronos talked to you in your dreams. And you believed him." The scorpion is now on my knee now, staring with its glittering eyes." I asked him, why he didn't bring the items to Kronos, He said, "I got over confident, Zeus sent out his sons and daughters, even Artemis, Apollo, my father Hermes. But it was Ares who caught me. He made me give the items to him, I tried to defeat him but he was too strong." I noticed Luke was the person who started everything from when I was here at camp. He was the one who summoned the Hellhound and the flying shoes were actually cursed. The scorpion then lunged, I swatted it away with my hand, took out my pen and sliced it in half. I was going to congratulate my self until I looked down at my hand. My palm had a huge red welt, oozing and smoking with yellow guck. The thing had gotten me after all. My whole body was aching. The water, I thought. It healed me before. I stumbled in the creek and dipped my hand in the water but nothing seemed to happen. The poison was too strong. "Help, please." There were nymphs that stirred from their trees, two of them took my arms, pulling me along. Then everything went black.

I was back at the sick room with Annabeth sitting beside me and Argus just standing there. Once again I was drinking the chocolate chip cookies which was nectar. I said to Annabeth, "Well here we are again." Chiron was also there standing. He smiled, but his face looked weary and pale, the way it did when he had been up all night marking Latin papers. Chiron told me that Luke went back to Olympus, I had to go there and stop him, but they didn't let me, since I was still weak. I told Annabeth that I wanted to go outside, she also didn't let me, but I didn't listen to her. My legs were really wobbly, I put a lot of pressure on Annabeth while I went for the front door. Then I finally made it to the railing, when I looked around the camp looked deserted, there was nobody at the volleyball pits and everywhere else. Chiron said that I had to train more, and wait until my time has come. Annabeth said quietly, "I'm going home for the year, Percy." Annabeth was going to get together with her family again. I was really happy for her. They were outside the camp waiting for her to come to them. "We are going to look for Luke next summer, Okay." I said to Annabeth, it was a deal. "Take care, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth told me, "Keep your eyes open." "You too wise girl." I watched her walk up the hill and join her family. She gave her father an awkward hug and looked back at the valley for one last time. For the first time at camp, I felt truly alone. I ha made my decision. I wondered if Poseidon were watching, would he approve my choice? I promised that I will be back at the camp. I asked Argus to take me down to cabin three, so I could pack my bags for home. Well this will be my last time writing on you, it was a great time writing on you, now I can always look back and remember everything that had happened in the past. GOOD BYE I will miss writing on you, journal!

Chapter 21: I Settle My Tab

It's funny how humans wrap their mind around things like dreams and wishes, then fit them into their version of reality. I remember Chiron saying this to me when I came to camp. As usual, I didn't like his wisdom until much later. Anyways, according to the L.A news, the explosion at the Santa Monica beach had been caused when a crazy kidnapper fired a shotgun at a police car, I think that crazy kidnapper was Ares. He accidentally hit a gas main that had ruptured during the earthquake. This one person's point of view, "This crazy kidnapper was the same man who had abducted me and two other people in New York and brought us across country on a ten day journey of terror." Then suddenly, I saw this article about me, and it said, "Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't a worldwide criminal after all. He had caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor. Then it talks about what I had been through over the past days, like when I was in Denver and when I fought Ares in Los Angeles. The reporters fed us this whole story. We acted like we weren't the people, we just nodded and acted tearful and exhausted which wasn't that hard to do. We also played as victimized kids for the cameras. I said, "All I want, is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew that we would be okay, somehow. After I did this, the police and reporters were so moved that they passed a hat around and they raised enough money for three tickets on the next plane to New York.

I knew there was no choice but to fly. I hoped Zeus would cut me some slack, but it was still hard to force myself on board the flight. The takeoff was a nightmare. Every spot of turbulence was scarier than a Greek monster popping out and attacking us. I never took my hands off the armrests until we touched sown safely at La Guardia. When we got off, the local press was waiting for us outside security but we managed to evade them, thanks to Annabeth. Then we split up at the taxi stand. I told Annabeth and Grover to go back to Half-Blood hill and let Chiron know what had happened. They protested, they didn't want to go after all that we had been through over the past days. But I told them that I wanted to finish the last part of the quest by myself. Then I hopped on to a taxi headed to Manhattan. Thirty minutes later, I walked into the lobby of the Empire State Building. I don't know, but it looked like everybody thought I was a homeless kid asking for help, because of my tattered clothes and my scraped up face. Oh yeah, I forgot that I also hadn't slept for a day. Anyways, I went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor please." The guard was holding a book that looked like it was about wizardry. He took a long time to look up at me, then he said, "No such floor, kiddo." The guard wouldn't let me in until I showed him my back pack and took out the master bolt. Then his face turned pale. I think he knew what it was, so he gave me a key card and told me what to do with it. I did as he told me. As soon as the elevator doors closed, I slipped the card into the slot. The card, then, disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red button that said 600. I pressed the button and waited and waited. Finally, the doors slid open. I stepped out and almost had a heart attack. I was standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air almost the height of an airplane would fly. When I looked down it was Manhattan. It was so SCARY. In front of me were white marble steps wound up the spine of the cloud, and the stairway led into the clouds. From the top of the clouds rose a peak of a mountain, it's summit was covered with snow. On the mountainside, there were mansions everywhere. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace was. This place can't be here, I told myself. The tip of a mountain hanging over New York City like a billion ton asteroid. But here I was. My trip through Olympus was a daze. I passed through a lot of weird things, like wood nymphs throwing olives at me, several of them just turned to watch me pass by. I climbed the main road, toward the big palace at the peak. It was a reverse copy of the Underworld. Everything had been black and bronze in the Underworld, here, every thing glittered white and silver. I guess Hades must have built his own palace to resemble this one, here. He wasn't welcomed into Olympus except on the Winter solstice. When I went up the steps that led to the central courtyard, past that was the throne room.

When I went to the throne room, there were twelve thrones, except for two that was missing. They were at the end, the head throne on the right and the other one immediate left. I already knew who the two gods were that were sitting there, waiting for me to approach. I came to them with my legs trembling. The Gods were in giant human form, as Hades has been. Zeus was wearing a dark blue pinstriped suit. He sat on a simple throne of solid platinum. The god sitting next to him was his brother, without a doubt, but he was dressed differently. He wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts and parrots all over it. His throne was a deep sea fisherman chair. It was the simple swiveling kind, with a black leather seat and a built in hole for a fishing rod. Instead of a pole, it was a bronze trident. The God's weren't moving or talking to each other, but they seemed to have finished an argument. I approached the fisherman's throne and knelt, saying, "Father." My heart was racing. The Gods finally talked, Zeus said, "Should you not address the master of this house first." I kept my head down and said nothing. Then Poseidon said that he wanted to hear me talk, and he also called me a wrongdoing, which kind of hurt my feelings. But, then Poseidon told me to look up at him, but he didn't say anything. I got the feeling Poseidon really didn't want to know what to think of me. Finally he spoke, "Address Lord Zeus, tell him your story," So I told Zeus everything that had happened and then I took out the metal cylinder. I laid the master bolt on his feet, then Zeus held out his hand and the master bolt went right at his palm. I told him that Ares was the one that stole it, by using someone to steal the master bolt. I guess Zeus was now happy and all the fighting came to an end. The good thing was that, Zeus let me live. I talked to my father for a while, until I had to go, He told me to always remember that I was the son of the Sea God, and that I should never forget that. Fifteen minutes later, I was back on the streets of Manhattan. I caught a taxi to my mom's apartment, rang the doorbell, and there she was, my beautiful mother. She was so happy to see me! She hugged me so tight, I was relieved to see her again. We talked for a while, until Gabe interrupted from the living room. My mom told me that Gabe is not happy about me. Then my mother took me to the living room, and Gabe was not happy at all. He thought I was in jail. Gabe actually hit my mother for the first time. I was full of rage, I wanted to uncap riptide and just slice him in half. But I forgot, the sword only works for half-bloods. My mom went with me to my room and on my bed, it was a package. I ripped it open and it was the address going to Mount Olympus. Suddenly, I understood what Poseidon had said at Olympus. A package. A decision. I asked my mother if she wanted Gabe out of the house. She said, "Yes, I do, Percy, but I can't." I told her I could solve it for her. I took a last look around my bedroom, and headed for the front door. I told my mother that I was going back to Half-blood hill. I was not happy, because I won't see my mother for a long time again, but I'm happy she's back. Finally, everything is over!!!