Nico
That wasn't a surprise for me. But for basically everyone else, they were shocked.
"You're not shocked?" Thalia questioned how worthy I was as Percy's boyfriend. "Or worried? At all."
"I already knew about this," I assured the daughter of Zeus. "Trust me. He goes to therapy, he's seen a doctor about it, it's being taken care of."
This conversation would have carried on if Beryl Grace hadn't showed up and actually scared the shit out of everyone.
Because everyone knew she was dead. We went over this last night.
The first person she saw was Tristan and talked to him.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Tristan asked her.
"It's me, Beryl."
"No," he said and then laughed. "Beryl died a long time ago."
"Okay, you had a kid with a Greek goddess," Beryl pointed out to him, which got our attention because Rachel's parents and Annabeth's step mom and brothers sort of don't know. "And you're gonna deny me being alive? Really?"
"Greek what?" Annabeth's step mom, brothers, and Rachel's parents all said at once.
We all shared a look. Because they're all um... Can take these things wrong and try to put us in prison. For life.
And then we remembered that Tristan doesn't...
"Piper's mom isn't a goddess," Tristan told many lies. "Just because she was named after one—"
"No, that was a goddess," Hazel interuppted and we all looked at her. "She's the daughter of Aphrodite. Goddess of beauty and love."
"Yeah," Beryl agreed. "You dated Aphrodite, I dated Zeus, Sally dated Poseidon, Fredrick dated Athena, so on and so forth."
"Um, sorry to interrupt." Rachel's Mom cut in. "But are you feeling alright? You're taking about myths as if reality."
Poseidon just kind of... He stood there.
I felt bad. But we were all in a standstill.
"Yeah," Fredrick's wife remarked and looked at her husband. "Because I mean, you'd tell me if Annabeth was the daughter of Athena. Right?"
Fredrick smiled.
"Yeah, okay."
The um... Her brother's realised what that meant.
"You're the daughter of a goddess!" They exasperated to Annabeth. "Which means you're really smart!"
"Yeah, and I have over ten years of training," Annabeth informed them. "So if you dare open your mouths, I can kill both of you and nobody would know."
Percy looked at her.
"They will now."
Rachel's parents took Rachel and left and um... They didn't seem very happy with one another and yeah. I'm assuming Rachel got in trouble.
Percy
It was a long ass holiday.
Jason got to meet his mom and that was good. Beryl and Thalia got into an argument about Thalia running away. Annabeth and her step mom were throat to throat about the whole thing. Tristan didn't know what to do with the information. And none of us could see Rachel anymore. She wasn't allowed at camp.
So getting back the next day, it was weird. I didn't have school, but I saw a new therapist and she was nice. I liked her a lot more. I kind of explained my situation to her and she was more understanding about it.
That was good, and I decided to stop by the Dare's household. Because maybe if U explained stuff they wouldn't hate all of us.
They opened the door, her dad saw me, and closed it right away.
Like wow, thanks.
I know you never liked me in the first place, but that's kind of rude.
I knocked again and he opened again. This time, he knew who it was, and he was annoyed with me. Which made me sort of feel like shit.
He groaned.
"What do you want, Jackson?"
"I..." My courage went away. "I thought maybe that if you guys were confused or had questions about what kind of went down yesterday, that I could answer some. It's my job and all, but if you're that appalled to my presence then I'll go home, I just thought that maybe you guys wanted—"
"Are you okay?" He asked me, which was a totally different subject. "Did Rachel say something that didn't actually happen?"
"No, I, she..." I started to stutter and I hated when I started to do that. Anxiety. "She said we weren't allowed around her and she couldn't go to camp and stuff. Which I reasonable and all. I just figured if you guys had questions. I know you don't like me and all but—"
"Who on Earth gave you that idea?" Rachel's Mom cut me off. "Sure, he's a but grumpy, but he is to everyone. You're lovely to have around, Percy. We would never not let you here unless you did something really bad. You see each other in school, anyways. There isn't much we could stop."
They invited me inside.
"We told her she couldn't go to camp," Rachel's Mom, Danielle explained to me. "Because she wasn't telling us where she was really going. Come summer, she'll be able to go there. It's just for the year so we know where she is. She must've interpreted that wrong. She's at art club right now, I'll clarify that when she get home. Where did you come from? You normally drive up from the other direction."
"Oh, therapy." I told them. "I pass by the road on the way home, I figured I'd stop by just because yesterday was sort of a bad way to see everything at full scale for what it was."
Rachel's dad went to take a business call.
"I wouldn't doubt that," Danielle agreed. "I didn't think you went to therapy."
"I haven't been going for that long," I explained. "but did you guys have questions that maybe Rachel didn't know? Or answer?"
Danielle took a minute to think and she suddenly had it. And there were quite a few questions.
"As much as I doubt this is in your reason of saying." She started. "Is Rachel safe?"
I took a breath.
"That depends." I told her. "You know, we never meant to drag Rachel into this message that it's become. She found out through Annabeth, Fredrick's daughter, and myself before school even started freshman year. We needed to borrow something or needed her to do something, I don't remember at the moment, but we explained it all to her and she sort of freaked and almost told the entire cafe. But she's known ever since and when..."
I thought back to the Second Titan War.
"When you guys were in vacation, I don't know why Rachel invited me." I was honest. "Because she knew that there was a prophecy that was going to unfold around the time of this vacations and at the time everyone, including myself, was convinced that it involved my death and I didn't even hear it until after you guys left. And I didn't die, luckily. But either way, last resort had came to last resort and I felt terrible bringing her into that shit that just haunts you for the rest of your life. I'm sorry."
