Pieces | Percy Jackson and the Olympians

#2 - A Baby Leopard Helps Capture the Flag

I have to say that the worst part about being a child of the Big Three was the loneliness. You'd think that after years of sleeping in an empty cabin and eating at an empty table you'd be used to it. Not at all.

As if the silence wasn't bad enough, I was always constantly bored out of my mind, having no one to talk to or mess around with. All I could do was sit patiently (which is insanely hard when you're ADHD) and delve into my deep pool of thoughts; There seemed to always be a million things on my mind that could never wait their turn to be at the top.

I sighed as I poked at my barbecue with my fork, not feeling very hungry. With everything going on recently I couldn't find the extra space in my head to pay attention to my health. I guess that thought had sunk back down to the bottom, where it usually is, refusing to resurface.

What had currently been clouding my mind was first the issue of the stolen lightning bolt. Me, Chiron and Mr. D were the only three who knew the details, and they were both adamant about me not telling anyone. The only reason I knew was because barely two seconds after Zeus saw his lightning bolt missing he blamed me and my father.

I get where he was coming from—My father is Poseidon, who is constantly trying to one-up him, and I just so happened to be the daughter of Poseidon who was there at the Winter Solstice when it was stolen—. But, by some miracle I had the alibis of Apollo and Artemis that I had been talking to some of the nymphs outside the whole time. I didn't remember seeing either of the two gods out there with me, but I wasn't going to deny an alibi that prevented me from getting struck down by Zeus.

So, despite looking very grumpy about it, Zeus let me go. Now, try and guess who was next on Zeus' blame list? If it's not obvious, it's Percy, the only other person Zeus could use to somewhat blame his brother.

Now all the gods blamed Percy, and Hades was even starting to send some of the worst monsters after him. That's why our mother was taken, that's why he got to camp when he did, that's why he had the luxury of fighting the minotaur on his first day.

Worst part was I couldn't even talk to him about it, thanks to Chiron's stupid logic. Best I could do was glance at the Hermes table every now and then, watching Percy nearly get shoved off the bench because of the amount of people squeezed on it as Luke explained how the food worked. I frowned, I should be the one explaining things him.

With a sigh I stood up and grabbed my plate before walking over to the fire and dumping it all in. I had already given a portion to Poseidon, but I wasn't going to finish and figured what better thing to do than turn it into delicious smelling smoke for the cause of my problems. I also ended up throwing the plate in the fire and was immediately scolded by one of the nymphs.

With an eye roll I returned back to my seat and wasn't surprised to see that the nymph had brought me another serving of food, only this one was on a paper plate. Nymphs were always so petty.

Just as I sat back down to once again ignore my food, Chiron's hoof pounded against the floor to gain our attention.

A loud and dramatic sigh escaped Mr. D as he stood up to address everyone. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

I grimaced as all the kids at the Ares table began chanting like ogres and pounding their utensils and fists against the table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."

I let out a quiet snort as Chiron murmured something to Mr. D.

"Er, Percy-" he faltered and glanced at Chiron who shook his head, "Yeah, Percy. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."