Dear son

Ninth chapter

Hiii!

As promised part one of two rather interesting chapters.

PLEASE, I need to hear your opinions on this! I don't want to spoil anything yet, but you'll see what I mean!

Anyways, the TW are: graphic depictions of violence, more violence....

Thank you for sticking around and reading!

Best wishes,
Leather pants

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Dear son,

Dude you won't believe it, but I got a job. An actual job paying pretty good money. And all that without an actual college degree. Which I think is pretty impressive (Mrs. D -she was my highschool english teacher, who said I would have a miserable future without going to college- can suck on deez nutz).
Now the catch is that it's not very legal. It should be in my opinion, but unfortunately I am not very suitable to go into politics.
So basically I am a programmer and hacker now. I taught myself ever since I had you and got pretty decent at it. The company who hired me seems to think so too, because they pay me 5 '000 dollars a month (that number can get higher based on performance).
This job is literally perfect because now I can stay home with you and also work and make some money at the same time. Independent woman and house wife at the same time. Just kidding, Felix is still the bigger house wife.
Okay, I'm going to go buy some nice dinner and a new pair of rubber boots for you, because you keep insisting on going out into the rain so you can find frogs. Which I find very cute by the way, you're just like me when I was your age.
I love you!

With all my heart,
Your Mom

The day of the tournament had finally arrived and I was ready. So ready I had woken up an hour early to go for a run and exercised a bit. Luke had joined me after I got back from the run. Both of us were in an usually good mood.
When the adults had finally woken up, we basically dragged Mom and Zayn to the car so we could leave. I drove, so I had full control over how fast we were getting there (let's just say we got there five minutes faster then we would on a normal school day). Mom seemed to be completely fine with it, even enjoying it a little, but Zayn was white as a wall when he got out of the car.
Luke and I got our weapons out of the truck before going to look for Gaia. She was supposed to wait for us, so we could go over to the start point together. Unfortunately there were a lot of people and Gaia was very small and easily lost in crowds.
"Have you seen her yet-" Luke was interrupted by a bundle of grey hair that jumped at him, clinging on to his arms. He was taken by surprise, but held her without hesitation. "There she is."
Gaia wasn't up for any jokes. She was staring at Luke with a helpless, desperate look on her face.  Her bottom lip was quivering and she was even sniffling.
It wasn't really a surprise to us. Ever since Gaia had heard of the tournament she had been in panic. Especially after we explained to her how those worked. Because as it turned out Gaia was against any form of physical violence and had never even picked up a weapon in her life. That was one thing, but then she also found out that the tournaments tended to be very brutal, sometimes even resulting in death (it wasn't encouraged, but let's be honest, the gods coming to watch the games loved it).
Once Gaia had accepted that there was no way out of this and that she would have to participate in the capture the flag game, she had lost all hope. She was a crying mess and barely anything could calm her down. Not even when Luke awkwardly patted her head.
So over the next couple of days we came up with a very simple strategy: Gaia was supposed to hide very well, while Luke and I tried to keep her safe.
It was going to be a bit of a challenge, since none of us were on the same team, but hey, the two most skilled fighters of the school could definitely win the tournament and still keep their friend alive.
"This will work, okay?" Luke put his arm around Gaia, squeezing her closer, resting his chin on her head. "Just hide and we will come get you once it's over?"
Gaia looked up at Luke with such trust in her eyes, that I almost felt like I had to look away. Those two... since my birthday things had changed. I wasn't exactly sure what, because Luke hadn't told me shit, but apparently there was some kind of emergency where she called him in the middle of the night. I wasn't filled in on the details, but when they called me over the next morning... meh, something was different.
After calming Gaia down and saying goodbye to our parents, we went over to the big open field full of demigods. There was a stage set up, where principal Sanders would give a speech before the start of the tournament.
Fawns were walking all over the place, handing out bracelets with the team colours. They had clipboards, to cross off the names of every participant that had been put into their groups. I was team red, Luke team blue and Gaia got yellow. She still seemed very nervous, playing with her long hair and stepping around on the spot, until Luke put his arm around her, whispering things in her ear.
I decided to give them some privacy and check out what else was going on  instead. The stands were full of people as always. Most of them were parents, siblings or teachers, but there were also other townspeople there who were just excited to see a bunch of teenagers fight until they (almost) died. I attempted to find Mom and the others in the crowd but it was impossible, too many tiny heads in a very large crowd. So I checked out the golden stands instead.
That was where the gods were at. Not all of them of course, but the ones interested enough were. Sometimes there were surprise guests or new faces, but today was not one of those days. Sitting on their golden thrones were Dionysus, who always enjoyed a good show, Poseidon, a good father there to support his children, Ares and Athena, both being the hosts of this event. They were talking to each other only glancing at their children from time to time.
Oh, how I hated them.
They were sitting up there on their private, golden bleachers, smug smiles on their faces, surrounded by thousands of people who worshipped them. Everything about them disgusted me. They were here to see us -their children and grandchildren- fight and die just for their entertainment. Yes, they pretended to be sad about accidental deaths, shocked by the brutality and lengths we were willing to go to just to impress them, but in reality they knew. They were fully aware of the impact they had on demigods and they were using it against us without shame.
Most other demigods didn't know and actually believed that they were making the gods proud. Anything would be done if it meant getting a smile or some praise from one of them. I wasn't one of them. My mom had told me about this scheme a long time ago, because she had fallen for it when she was younger.
The only reason I was winning was because I was good at this. I didn't care about the prize I won or the celebratory speech after. And I could keep the people close to me from getting hurt in these games.
"Dear parents, dear faculty members and most of all dear gods, I welcome you all to the first annual tournament of this year! I thank you all for coming here to witness this even with us!" Principal Sanders' voice echoed over the entire field as he gave his welcoming speech. "Our dear students want to thank you as well! They have all trained and prepared and are just as excited for today's tournament as we are -especially for the outcome."
He gave the gods a wink, but none of them were paying attention to him. Athena and Ares were in deep conversation, probably fighting about whose children will score the highest, Dionysus was emptying another goblet. The only one giving a shit was Poseidon, scanning the mass of demigods in front of him, probably looking for his children.
I zoned out for a moment and was brought back by principal Sanders mentioning my mothers name.
"And we are also delighted to welcome back some of our older champions: Zayn Mikaelson and Kyra Winchester! Give them a round of applause!" Sanders waited until it was quiet again to continue his speech. "You might also know their sons, Percy and Luke. Those two have not lost a single tournament since they joined this school!"
More applause and cheering and I just wanted to go back home again. Sanders had to do this every single time and it was the most nerve-wrecking thing ever. While I was trying not to turn red under the eyes of hundreds of people, Luke had a cocky grin on and was waving to the stands of cheering demigods.
Luckily Sanders didn't mention me for the remaining time he spent talking. He just explained again how today's tournament would work, then finished the speech by kissing up to the gods by thanking them a million times for every single thing they had ever done. After he stepped away from the microphone, everyone started moving.
Now it was go-time. We had exactly ten minutes to prepare, get our weapons, get stuff from the medical tent and warm-up. Luke and I stayed where we were. We had our own weapons, stretching and general warm-up was already done and we were pretty healthy, so nothing from the medi-tent was needed. We used the time to go over our strategy one more time: Let Gaia hide, locate her with the snap map and try to win this thing while also making sure she wouldn't get harmed.
"Just text us if anyone gets too close." Luke said for about the hundredth time. By now Gaia just nodded along, looking very empty. It was clear that this was the last thing she wanted to do, but there was no way around it (except for heavy injuries and death). Reasons like being a pacifist or just being shit at fighting didn't count.
When the ten minutes were over, we all went over to the forest and the four groups started to build. My team was located more in the back, which was perfect. There was a huge rock, the source of all rivers going through the forest. It was a great base to hide the flag, because it was easy to overlook but hard to sneak up to without being seen. The rest of team red seemed to think the same, because we all ended up there, scattered around the rock. Most of the other kids looked over to me, as if they were expecting me to take charge, leading them into another win. But after a couple minutes of everyone just standing around, someone else suggested what I had thought all along.
"Okay, whoever has the flag, bring it up to the top of the rock. Then, I see we have a few fellow Apollo kids here, we guard the rock." It was Silas, son of Apollo, good looking and reincarnation of sunlight (and in my opinion one of the most handsome guys at this school). He had climbed up on a smaller rock, so it was easier for him to get everyone's attention. The way he stood there, his bow in one hand, a relaxed, friendly smile on his lips... hell, even I wanted to listen to him for a second.
While Silas explained the rest of the plan to the group, I made sure my bow was ready and my sword sharp enough. I wasn't listening to what was happening around me, so I almost suffered a heart attack when someone said my name.
"Percy, good to have you on our team!"
It was Silas. He had gotten down from his position and was now standing right next to me. The smile he was giving me wasn't at all like I expected it to be. Normally people were extra friendly on tournament day, because they knew it was a win for them. But not Silas. He seemed to be genuinely happy about this, at least his smile said so. Having him talk to me one on one was almost exciting.
His hand wandered up to my shoulder, lightly squeezing it while he was still looking at me. I swallowed, trying to put on a smile at least half as charming as his.
"Listen, I know you play on your own terms, so I handed out all of the crucial jobs like defence, spying and all that stuff to the others. You're free to do as you please and have some fun." Silas nudged me in the side and then let go, stepping over to the others again. I was still looking after him when it occurred to me that I should have said something. A simple "thank you" or "wow, that was nice of you", but no, I stood there like an idiot, staring at him.
But there wasn't any time to think about it any further, because the bells rang, announcing the official start of the tournament. My favourite sound in this school.
I left the clearing, hearing Silas yell after me: "Go get them!" This time I was quick enough to react, turning around and giving him a crooked smirk before disappearing between the trees...