The perfect monster

Dinner... up in smoke

Code

AN: Arthor notes

"Thoughts"

Text

reading

"Speach"

*onomatopoeia*

'Importance'

Expression

*action*

Diffident meaning

Percy POV

Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet. 

She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the artsand crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.

Finally, we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins. 

 "I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinners at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets." 

 "Whatever." 

 "It wasn't my fault." 

She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing. 

 "You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said. 

 "Who?" 

 "Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron." 

I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once. I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shim-mering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend. I didn't know what else to do. I waved back. 

 "Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts. Ask Halo"

"None of that Annie." I heard a voice behind me, I looked behind me, and it was like Halo appeared behind me leaning against some railing. I saw the Naiads wave at him, like he was the one popular kid in those high school movies.

"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now." 

 Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us." 

 "You mean, mentally disturbed kids?" I saw Halo nod along in agreement.

"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human." 

"Usually." Halo muttered, he sounded annoyed, but then again it aways felt like he was

 "Half-human and half-what?" 

 "I think you know." 

 I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.