The Youngest Hawthorne

13. Several Awkward Conversations Later

We're sitting on the bed, talking. Not about the kiss, about other things. But it's like closing that little space tore down a huge wall in between us. Now we're more open. Like a kiss really confirmed that we're dating.

"Y/n, watch out!" Xander shouts, looking at something behind me. I scream, and pull out my dagger. Frantically trying to slash at it, I fall backwards on the bed. It jumps, and it's so big, it can pin both of us down.

"HELP!!!" I scream. Now that it's closer, it's skin is too tough to cut. We're both hacking at its tough hide, but to no avail. We're screaming, in the desperate hope that someone will hear us, preferably one of the demigods.

"What's-"Hazel starts, dashing into the room and noticing the monster on top of us. She attacks it with a long sword, though it bounces off uselessly. The monster is distracted from us though. "LEO, THIS THING HAS TOUGH SKIN! COME USE YOUR FIRE!" She shouts, way more casual than she should be, considering that she's standing in front of a monster with impenetrable skin, armed with only a weapon that is meant to penetrate the skin.

"I'M COMING!!!" Leo shouts back. The monster gets off of us to face Hazel, and I can breathe again. Hazel manages to keep it occupied until Leo gets in and can kill it with fire.

"You guys good?" Hazel asks.

"Y- yeah. I think so," I stammer.

"We're fine," Xander adds, though he looks a little pale. That was the closest call yet.

"Oh, y/n, Percy just got back. He wants to talk to you," Leo informs me.

"Ok. Could you ask him to come here?"

"Sure thing," he says, turning to leave. Hazel follows him, and it's just me and Xander again.

"We need better weapons, or more training, or something," I say.

"Maybe. I don't even want to know how close that monster was to finishing us."

"Yeah. I guess it wasn't really our fault since its skin was so tough we couldn't hit it."

"Hey, y/n," Percy says, coming in. "What was going on earlier? At school?"

"Well, I always kept the fact that I knew the Hawthornes a secret, since people start acting differently when they're involved in anything. But word got out, and I had to leave, so they wouldn't keep bothering me. There's a policy for all the schools in the district that if a student has a direct connection to this family become public, there are certain measures that could be taken to protect them. One of those is leaving school for the day to meet with this family and discuss how to continue. I get briefed on how it all works when I first started school, and at the beginning of every year since then."

"Wow. The schools have to do that?"

"Yeah. It's an unfortunate fact of life in this area. I guess they figured that more people would have connections with them, since we live in the same general area. But how was the rest of your day?"

"Not great. You left me alone for math and language arts! We had to read a book out loud! And I have dyslexia! I can only read Greek!"

"Oh. Sorry."

"And Elaina kept trying to flirt with me! Plus, there were two more monsters that showed up after you left. Though I think that I might have found a half-blood."

"Ok? What do you do about the half-blood?"

"Take them back to Camp Half-Blood, where they'll be trained to defend themselves, and if they aren't powerful enough, then they'll be able to stay here most of the year, and come back for the summers."