Eat Your Young, Percy Jackson

2 - dinner goes up in smoke

Word of the bathroom incident spread across camp quickly. Clarisse made sure of it, though her version of events were slightly different than what Phoebe experienced. Phoebe and Percy were the lucky ones, their clothes weren't soaked through for dinner, but Percy didn't care for Clarisse's story of how she had him crying with her antics.

After giving him the complete tour, Percy and Phoebe sat down by the lake, seemingly the only place in camp where someone wasn't ogling at him. She gave him the rundown of how the rest of the night would go; dinner in the mess hall, back to the cabin for the night. Simple, Percy could handle that.

"I'm sorry about the bathrooms," Percy broke the silence that fell over them as Phoebe tossed rocks into the lake.

"I know."

"It wasn't my fault." She stopped and tentatively looked over at him. She bit her bottom lip slightly and tilted her head to the side, giving him a look with a meaning that she thought he would understand. He didn't.

"Chiron will probably have you talk to the Oracle."

"The what?"

She sighed at him, standing up and patted her side to ensure her dagger was secured in its sleeve.. Percy half expected her to reach her hand out to help him up, but she didn't. She didn't even move away from him, she just stared right past him. He wasn't sure why she got up, but he felt like it was something he did. He opened his mouth to apologize for upsetting her, to try to explain that he was sorry, that he didn't mean to ruin his friendship with the one person who had bothered to show any interest in him since he'd gotten to camp, but just as he found the words she started talking.

"The Oracle. I mentioned the idea to Annabeth earlier and she agreed, but that could just be her eagerness talking. We can talk to him after dinner. I can." She looked back at him and then held her hand out for him. Percy couldn't help a smile forming on his face as he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.

"What if I want to come with you?" Phoebe raised one of her eyebrows at him as he dusted the sand off his pants, "I'm a demigod now, don't I have to earn that glory somehow?" She broke into a smile as she rolled her eyes and started walking off. He took off in a sprint after her, "Hey! You can't leave me alone after what happened this afternoon! I'm a vulnerable boy, I don't need anyone pulverizing me!"

Percy sat across from Phoebe at dinner. Luke was next to her and the rest of his surroundings were littered with other people whose name's Phoebe had told him, but he had been too dazed to remember.

Once everyone had arrived, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!" Percy's eyes shot up from the table and he looked to Phoebe for an explanation, but her eyes were fixed on Chiron. He continued to stare at her, hoping that they had somehow developed some Greek magic connection in the past couple hours and she would be able to tell he needed her. He was taken out of his trance by Luke handing him a platter of smoked brisket. He lifted up his fork to take a bite when he felt something slap down on his wrist.

"Ow, what was that for? I don't think they're running out, just go get your own." He peeled Phoebe's hand off his arm and looked up to see her jutting her head towards the fire, where groups of campers were starting to form. Luke nodded to Percy, laughing at the visible distress on Phoebe's face.

"Come on," Percy followed, trailing behind the two of them.

As he got closer, he noticed that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.