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The next few days were torture, just like Tantalus wanted. As much as it killed Marlowe to be around Percy, she did it for Tyson.
He was new to everything and she wanted to make sure that no one would make fun of him like they used to in the books. If they made fun of Percy, well, Marlowe didn't really care if they did at the moment.
Annabeth tried to make Percy feel better. She suggested that they team up for the chariot race to take their minds off their problems.
One morning Annabeth and Percy were sitting by the canoe lake sketching chariot designs. Marlowe sat by them only because she wanted to talk to Annabeth. Her chariot was pretty much ready, since she had worked on it the whole day and night before.
Marlowe was just getting ready to ask Annabeth about her side of the chariot when some jokers from Aphrodite's cabin walked by and asked Percy if he needed to borrow some eyeliner for his eye... "Oh sorry, eyes."
As they walked away laughing, Annabeth grumbled, "Just ignore them, Percy. It isn't your fault you have a monster for a brother."
"He's not my brother!" Percy snapped. "And he's not a monster, either!"
Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "Hey, don't get mad at me! And technically, he is a monster."
"Well you gave him permission to enter the camp."
"Because it was the only way to save your life! I mean... I'm sorry, Percy, I didn't expect Poseidon to claim him. Cyclopes are the most deceitful, treacherous—"
"He is not! What have you got against Cyclopes, anyway?
Annabeth's ears turned pink. Percy got the feeling there was something she wasn't telling him—something bad.
"Just forget it," she said. "Now, the axle for this chariot—"
"You're treating him like he's this horrible thing," Percy said. "He saved my life. He saved Marlowe's life, too!"
Annabeth threw down her pencil and stood. "Then maybe you should design a chariot with him."
"Maybe I should."
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
She stormed off and Marlowe looked up at her, gaping. "Annabeth— Ugh!" She turned to Percy. "Do you have to ruin everything all the time?"
Percy blinked. "What's your problem, now?"
"You! You're my problem!" Marlowe exclaimed, standing up. She was getting a lot angrier than she needed to, but at this point there was no stopping her emotions from flooding out. "You can't see past your own problems to see that there are bigger things going on!"
Percy was standing now. "I don't have any problems! And what 'bigger things' are you talking about?" he asked, putting quotation marks around the words bigger things, as if she were lying about it.
