The Youngest Hawthorne

5. Now there's nine of them?

As we adjusted to life with Leo, weird things kept happening. Before the one monster I had let out, I had never seen one before in my life. But now, they seem to be showing up all the time.

There have been several close encounters where one of us almost got attacked, but Leo had been able to rescue us so far.

“Ok, you guys need to learn to defend yourselves at least a little,” Leo says, pacing back and forth. He had called an official meeting after driving the third monster off of Nash. We’ve all had at least two almost disasters, and some have had more. “So I’m giving you all Celestial Bronze daggers. Max explained how that works, right?”

“Yeah. It can hurt monsters, but not mortals,” Avery says.

“Right. So these daggers,” he says, giving us each a mini knife, about the size of my hand, “probably won’t be enough to kill most monsters, but they can slow them down long enough for me to get there. Rules are: don’t be stupid with them, only take them out in here for basic training or in a really bad emergency, and don’t use them on me. Because they can hurt me. Also, don’t mess around with each other, even though they can’t hurt you. Just don’t be stupid.”

“Got it. But did you say ‘basic training’?” Avery asks.

“I did indeed. It is not enough to just have a dagger and swing it around at any monster you see, you must know how to properly use it, or you may do more harm than good. I called in reinforcements to help train you.”

“And who might these ‘reinforcements’ be?” Grayson asks. He’s been doing his best to ignore all the demigod and monster weirdness going on around here, but that’s a little difficult when he’s been attacked by four different monsters.

“I’m glad you asked. I have summoned my very good friends who helped me to defeat Gaea to train all of you. As a matter of fact, the first few should be arriving here in just a few minutes.”

“Wait, Max told us about you guys. Peter Johnson is one of them, right?” I say.

“You’re thinking of Percy Jackson, and sounding like Mr. D. Don’t call him that again,” he says with a smile. “I’ll give you a quick recap so you don’t do something like that while they’re here. There’s Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. He’s dating Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. Then there’s Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, the Roman manifestation of Zeus. His sister is actually Thalia, and you met her before. Jason is dating Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite. Then there’s Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, the Roman version of Hades. She’s dating Frank Zhang, son of Mars, the Roman Ares. And that’s everyone who’s coming.”

“So now there will be eight demigods here?” Avery asks.

“Yeah. Sorry, I kinda forgot to ask permission, but they’ll do really well training you, and I figured I could invite the whole group, since you aren’t exactly pressed for space.”

“I’m not worried about any of that. I’m worried about what monsters all of you here together might attract.”

“Don’t worry. We survived a trip through the Mediterranean Sea. You’ll all be fine,” he says smiling. I only have time to wonder what’s so dangerous about a Mediterranean vacation, when he shouts, “GET DOWN!” I turn around and a giant wolf-like monster is about to pounce on me! I scream and hit the ground, while Leo dives in front of me, using his fire to ward it back. Once he gets it a ways away, he takes out some gadget, and the monster turns to dust.

“Woah…” I breathe. No matter how many times I see him finish off the monsters, it’s always cool. There’s some sort of commotion outside, and we all go running. When we get out, there’s a dark haired boy arguing with a blonde girl.

“For the millionth time, seaweed brain, this is DEFINITELY where Leo said to meet him,” The girl says.

“What kind of mortal could afford to build this house? It’s got to be, like, Zeus’s summer home or something,” The boy replies. Leo runs out and hugs both of them.

“Glad you could make it. And Percy, the kind of mortal who could build this house is one that had a net worth of 30 billion dollars before he died, leaving it all to a complete stranger. It’s a tragic, yet enthralling tale which you will hear many times during your stay here,” Leo says, laughing. “When will everyone else show up?”

“I don’t know exactly, but some time in the next hour or so,” the girl- Annabeth- replies.

“Well, might as well introduce the two of you. Don’t be shy!” Leo waves us over, and we slowly walk to where they’re standing. “These are Percy and Annabeth. And these are Xander, y/n, Jameson, Avery, Grayson, Libby, and Nash,” he points to each of us as he says our names. “I already told them about you guys, and the rest of the group, and their story is so complicated I should probably wait to explain it until I can do it all at once.”

“Hi,” Percy says. “Also, Leo, Chiron decided to let Nico and Will come too.”

“Sweet! Now all we need is Reyna and Grover.”

“So it’ll be twelve demigods now?” Avery asks.

“No, Reyna probably can’t come since she’s too busy being in charge of Camp Jupiter, and Grover is a satyr.”

“There’s some people at the gates.” Oren tells Avery. “They say their names are Piper and Jason. Do you know them?”

“Yeah. They’re supposed to be here,” Leo says. Oren eyes him suspiciously, but opens the gates nonetheless.

“Leo!” A girl with brown skin and choppy hair runs across the huge lawn to him, quickly followed by a blonde boy wearing glasses.

“I thought that the girl named Piper was supposed to be a daughter of Aphrodite?” I whisper to Xander.

“I did too. She really doesn’t look like it though. With her hair and all. She looks like she would consciously decline a makeover,” he replies. ‘Maybe Piper’ and ‘Possibly Jason’ finally get to Leo, and give him a giant hug. Percy and Annabeth join.

“You guys probably guessed that these are Piper and Jason, didn’t you?” Leo says.

“Uh, yeah. Isn’t she the daughter of Aphrodite?” I ask.

“Yeah. I am. Just because my mom is the goddess of beauty doesn’t mean I have to be super shallow, only caring about looks.” Piper says. Then, another two demigods stumble out from under a tree. Like the LITERALLY JUST APPEARED IN THE SHADOW.

“Wha- how- why- th-” everyone seems very confused as they walk out. One of them has blonde hair, and the other’s hair is black and shaggy.

“Nico! Will!” Leo shouts.

“Don’t touch me.” The dark haired one says.

“Guys! Meet Nico and Will! Sons of Hades and Apollo!” He says, enthusiastically pointing to each of them.

“How did you guys get in here?” Grayson asks.

“Shadow travel.” Nico says.

“And now you need to lie down,” Will tells him. “Any chance someone who knows this house pretty well could point me to where we’ll be sleeping?”

“Right this way,” Jameson says. Nico and Will start to walk away, then seem to notice the size of the house.

“This is your house?” Will asks Avery.

“Yup. I’ll tell you the story later,” she replies. After Jameson, Nico, and Will leave, more people show up at the gates. There’s a black girl whose hair looks like cinnamon toast, and a Chinese looking boy.

“These are Hazel and Frank,” Leo says, then he lists out each of our names again. “Nico and Will already got here, Jameson is taking them to their rooms. But does this mean that everyone is here? Great! Now you can all hear about these people.”