Past Gods React To PJO Books

I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus

It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me. The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for nonmortal transactions – whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a flask of nectar and an airtight bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally. 

"Yes, that's quite true. I've seen many cases where heroes have died because of too much of ambrosia. Pity that. My realm is getting overcrowded as it is. " said Hades.

Everyone stared at Hades.

"What?" he grumbled. "Its true."

Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.

"A magic cap?" Hephaestus sounded intrigued. "What does it do?" 

"Not a bad choice." said Athena. "There is this other book, though. Remind me to tell you about it later. Its a fantastic read."

"Alright." Annabeth said, amused.

"Don't worry about the metal detector." said Will. "The mist will cover it up. I think."

Grover wore his fake feet and his trousers to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's 'So Yesterday', both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

"Percy! I thought you were my best friend! I am so offended." said Grover

"I'm sorry! But, seriously, they sound really bad on reed pipes" said Percy

"Hmph."

We waved goodbye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

"Wait, Thalia, you were a tree?" asked Jason.

"Yup." Thalia replied exhausted, as though she had to clarify this several times in the past. 

"You could've told us that earlier, y'know, 'cause we burned down a lot of pine trees on our first quest. We would've been more careful." said Leo. 

Thalia gave him a cold look.

"That was the greatest idea the lord of the skies came up with? Saving her by turning her into a tree?" said Percy, obviously trying to annoy the gods.

Thalia's glaring eyes turned on Percy.

"Watch your tongue boy." said Zeus.

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.