Unknown Friendship

Chapter Eleven: Better

Katie felt truly guilty—like, seriously guilty. It was that time again, the time where she was at one of her favorite places ever. The season was summer, and Katie Gardner, Daughter of Demeter, was unpacking her things in her cabin. Now, even if she loved this place like her garden, she still thought it could be better.

But that would involve bringing Perseus Jackson, her best friend, to Camp Half-Blood.

This was the beginning of Katie's second year at camp, and the guilt eating at her heart wasn't as severe as it had been the year previous, since at least this year the trip to Long Island had been planned. It still hurt no matter what she told herself, however, and, though she would never—and she means never ever—admit it to Percy, Katie missed him. She missed all their crazy adventures and even the moments where she was positive she was about to die. Yes, being a demigod was dangerous, but it was nothing compared to being partners with a world-wide—yes, somehow, Percy managed to annoy people across the world; it is still a mystery to Katie—criminal.

And, to make everything ten times harder, Percy was actually trying to do good things, instead of attempting to pluck every nerve of FBI agents and whatnot! It had started right before Katie had been found by a monster and brought to Camp Half-Blood: Percy had been giving to charity. Sort of.

What he really did was take money from people and then send it to charities of all kinds. His logic was that, if he only took five to twenty dollars, nobody would notice or care too much if they did. So, Percy would make a flexible plan: "borrow without permission" five dollars from twenty wealthy looking people on the streets, "borrow without permission" ten to fifteen dollars from seven banks, and then "borrow without permission" twenty dollars from five stores or restaurants. At the end of the day, he could turn in 300 big ones to charities. Then, of course, Percy would take the extra and give it to his mom without her knowledge.

It was a twisted way of being good, but it was the best Katie had ever seen on a giant scale. Usually his acts of kindness consisted of being there for someone in need or not pounding an annoying person to a pulp.

Katie sighed quietly as she placed another pair of shorts in her drawer. She had missed the majority of it, though, because she spent her summer at camp. When she had called him her first day, Percy had been, to put it nicely, upset and maybe a bit angry at the extreme change of plans, but he had let it go and allowed her a summer—the first one in years—without him.

So, now, here she is, unpacking for an entire three months of planting, acting like the perfect child of Demeter, and pretending she didn't have the abilities or guts to beat the living snot out of the Stolls.

Truthfully, that was the second suckiest thing about Camp Half-Blood, besides not having Percy around twenty-four/seven.

Katie Gardner pretended; she didn't show her full potential.

She had no idea why she simply decided that—hey, I'm cool with not doing stupid awesome things like throwing knives; I'll just stay in the strawberry fields with my pacifist siblings.

When Katie had learned of the world of gods, she had had a difficult time figuring out her mother. Sure, she loved gardening, but she also had an IQ equal, if not higher, than half of the Athena cabin; she knew how to use weapons of all kinds. But, of course, there was the mild streak of violence and the love for a good fight. And who could forget her eleventh birthday! Her, arrested for thievery! Or maybe there was a goddess of following stupid, reckless people, so you do stupid, irresponsible things.