My Dinner Goes Up In Smoke
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 starting at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.
"That must have been bad, Annabeth," Thalia says, laughing.
She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids forging own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a gigant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing wally that shook violety, fropped 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 train led back to the cabins. - I've got training to do. - Annabeth said flatly. - Dinner's seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall.
- Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets.
"Did you really say that to him?" Triton asks, laughing loudly.
"Well, I wanted to apologize, but it didn't go too well," Ariel says, shrugging.
- Whatever.
- It wasn't my fault.
She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd make 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.
"After all, it was your fault, whether intentional or not," Nico says.
"Now I know, but how was I supposed to know back then?" Ariel asks, pouting.
"No one blames you, sweetheart," Apollo says reassuringly.
"Whipped," Hermes says, coughing.
- You need to talk with Oracle. - Annabeth said.
- Who?
- Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron.
Apollo watches the screen with an excited smile at the mention of the Oracle, while Ariel shudders at the memory.
I started into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answear 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 six feet below.
They wore blue jeans and shimmering 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 elso to do. I waved back.
- Don't encourage them. - Annabeth warned. - Naids are terrible flirts and maniplulate.
"They're not flirting with her; they recognized and welcomed Ariel as family," Amphitrite says angrily to Annabeth.
"Now I know, but back then I didn't," Annabeth says awkwardly.
- Naids. - I repeated, feeling completely owerhelmed. - That's it. I want to go home now.
Annabeth frowened. - Don't you get it, Ariel? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us.
"At home? They all treated her like a shit, glad she didn't want to be there. I would have wanted to leave there too," Thalia says, offended instead of Ariel.
