The Riptides: Percy's Sister (Percy Jackson And The Olympians)

Book One, Chapter Eight 1.8

Maybe I did lie. Because I got used to Travis and Connor not being twins yet looking exactly alike since parents and their kids can be the same too.

I did learn how to tell them apart, but it's only effective when they're together. The height difference of a couple inches, but if you're far away or looking at only one, then good luck. And voice obviously.

During those few days, I settled into a semi normal routine, since I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs and a centaur.

Every morning I learned ancient Greek from Annabeth and talked about the gods in present tense which was kinda weird. Turns out she was right about my dyslexia: ancient Greek wasn't too hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. It didn't take too long for me to go through a few lines of Homer without too much trouble.

The rest of the day, I'd go through outdoor activities, looking for something Percy and I were good at. Chiron tried teaching us archery, but we found out pretty quick we weren't any good with a bow. He surprisingly didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a few arrows from his tail.

Foot racing? I was at least better than Percy, but still no good. The wood nymphs left us in the dust. One of the instructors said, "Don't dwell on it too much okay. We've had tons of practice running away from lovesick gods." Still, it was a little embarrassing being slower than a tree.

Wrestling? For-get it. I was matched with that pixie cut blonde girl who was trying to give me a swirlie. Her name, or I guess nickname, is Bern. Every time we sparred she'd make my face make friends with the floor. After every showdown she'd get up all in my face and say, "This is just the beginning."

I just shot back with, "That's not nice."

"I don't play nice."

"Well ex-cuse me."

The only thing Percy and I really excelled at was canoeing and that's not the kind of skill you associate with heroes, or kids who survived a Minotaur attack. Unless I was going to make a heroic entrance/exit canoeing.

Percy and I talked and figured out that the senior campers and counselors were watching us, trying to figure out who our dad was. They were clearly dumbfounded. We weren't good at archery like the Apollo kids. We lacked Hephaestus's metalworking skills, gods forbid Dionysus's way with vine plants. Even if we were his kids I figure he'd claim us right away, unless we were such a big disappointment or embarrassment to him.

"You guys might be Hermes." Luke told us. "A kind of jack of all trades, master of none." He was probably trying to make us feel better. Still, even he didn't know what to make of us either.

Other than that, I liked camp. I really do. The fog over the beach in the morning, smell of hot strawberries in the afternoon, the monster noises still kinda scared me so I was glad Percy, my necklace and Oscar and Sprinkles were there to make me feel extra safe and protected. We'd eat with cabin eleven, scraping our sacrificial portion into the flames trying to feel some connection to our dad. Nothing. Only that warm feeling and the memory of his smile we've always had. I tried not to think about my mom too much, but the more and more I learned from the lessons with Annabeth and Chiron, adding Percy looking distracted when we'd talk, ideas and questions started to form. My main one, is Percy thinking the same thing? We likely were since our mom told us many times, we think alike, practically reading the other's mind. Despite our dyslexia and Percy's denial of I can never tell with you and how Percy's really not all that hard to read if you think about it.

So once I was confident enough in my assumption I asked, "When Chiron gave us the tour and you asked if the Underworld was real too..."

He still seemed lost in thought, "Yeah?"