{BOOK 3} Percy Jackson's Sister

At Least One of My Brothers is Tidy

     "Our winter mess is still there, isn't it?" I asked Percy.

      Instead of answering, Percy picked up his pace. I took that as a yes.

    Every afternoon, one of the senior counselors came around with a papyrus scroll checklist. Best cabin got first shower hour, which meant hot water guaranteed. Worst cabin got kitchen patrol after dinner, which, unless you were lava proof, wasn't very fun.

    Percy wasn't the cleanest roommate and sometimes his messiness was contagious. With the right motivation, I was fairly neat. But if I began cleaning and Percy was in the room, he'd start throwing trash at me until I would fight back and we'd end up wrestling on the floor and making even more of a mess. Our cabin was probably the messiest at the moment.

    We raced toward the commons area, the twelve mismatched cabins coming into view, organized in a U-shape just like the Olympians' thrones.

    The Demeter kids were just finishing up their cleaning, with the totally unfair advantage that they could make fresh flowers grow all over their cabin. Daisies sprouted on the roof and filled the air with a pleasant aroma. No way Percy and I could beat them.

    Hermes on the other hand, we might have a chance to beat. The kids in Cabin Eleven stuffed all their mess in closets and under bunks, hoping to hide it before today's inspector got to their cabin.

   Unfortunately, today's inspector was Silena Beauregard. She stepped out of the Aphrodite cabin, checking off a list in distaste.

    "Well, shit," Percy muttered. He had spotted Silena, too.

     Silena was nice, but she was an absolute neat freak, the worst inspector. She liked things to not only be neat, but also pretty. No way we could meet her standards in less than five minutes.

   The Poseidon cabin was the last of the "male god" cabins to be inspected, which meant we still had some time, not nearly enough though.

   I think whoever designed our cabin thought we would plunge it into the middle of the ocean and live there instead. It was made of gray shell-encrusted sea rock, long and low like a bunker, but it had windows that faced the sea and it always had a good breeze blowing through it.

    We burst open through the doors, practically lunging in order to get our stuff in check, when we were found with a pleasant surprise.

    My half brother, Tyson the cyclops, stood sweeping our floor.

   "Percy!" he bellowed. "Cassie!"

    He dropped his broom and ran towards us Being charged by a Cyclops wearing a flower apron and rubber gloves was a hell of a wake up call.

   "Hey, big guy!" I said. He forced us into a group hug and I could practically feel my lungs being compressed.

   "Ow, watch the ribs," Percy said. "The ribs."

    It had been almost a year since we had seen Tyson. His messy hair matched his tattered jeans and oversized flannel. His yellow teeth bared in a grin made me feel more at ease.

   "You are okay?" he asked. "Not eaten by monsters?"

    "Not even a little bit," Percy assured him.
We twisted and turned, showing Tyson that we had managaed to maintain all our limbs intact.

     He clapped happily. "Yay! Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!"

   "Maybe not in that order," I said.

   "Or all at the same time," Percy added.
"First, we've gotta worry about inspection. We should..."