Child of lightning-Percy Jackson x reader-Book one

Grover the goat

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me and Percy lug all are bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing Sally's cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car," he warned us as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."

Like I'd be the one driving. I was eleven, not to mention I've always been incredibly short. I couldn't even reach the pedals if I wanted to. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me and Percy.

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I felt a spark in my chest. And then it happened again. The whole world slowed down. Without even getting the chance to think about what I was doing I began to run towards the door. I almost instantly lost control. I'd never ran so fast in my entire life. It was like one second I was next to the car and the next I was next to smelly Gabe. I wanted more then anything to do something to him, to make him feel how he made Sally feel. But that wasn't right, if I did that I'd be just as bad as him. So then before I knew it I was back next to Percy, And the world sped up again, like nothing even happened. Mabey it didn't, I thought to myself. With all the crazy stuff going on I'm not sure I knew what was real.

We got in the Camaro and Percy told his mom to step on it.

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

I loved the place.

Despite that, every time I came I felt as though I was intruding. I mean Percy had been coming here since he was a baby, I couldn't beat that. And don't get me wrong this place is awesome but lets face it, this is Percy and Sally's place, I just kind of string along.

As we got closer to Montauk, Sally seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea. It was nice to see her happy

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples Sally had brought from work.

I guess I should probably explain the blue food.

See, Gabe had once told Sally there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, Percy's mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like Percy.

When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs, of Couse myself adding some peanut butter to mine because hey who has hot dogs without peanut butter. Sally told us stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told us about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.

Percy finally asked the question he always did when we came to Montauk— what was His father like.

I knew it wasn't his intent but when ever he brought it up it just reminded me how out of place I was. Sally's kind and takes care of me but she's not my mom. And Percy's my best friend but I don't think I could ever think of him as my brother. I'm still just little orphan girl Joey, no matter how many times people tell me other wise.

"I think I'm gonna go see if I can find any cool shells, I'll be back soon", I said taking this as my cue to leave

"ok Joey just make sure you don't get too close to the water." Sally started "Its freezing this time of year."

I nodded my head and continued on. I was used to being warned about the water. I didn't exactly know why. Sally had never said anything about it to Percy. I always just figured it was because I wasn't the best swimmer. Once when I was living with the Myers we went on a "family" vacation to a pretty famous lake. The second I touched the water I felt as though I was being pulled to the bottom. I've never felt that whole 'floating in water thing' people describe. I wasn't traumatized from the experience or anything. I'm definitely not afraid of the ocean, maybe just a little more hesitant then others. More open to warnings.

That night I had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, guiding the animals to fight harder.

I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. It was the total opposite of what had been happening to me lately and I didn't like it. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!

I woke with a start.

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight. Unlike most people lightning never frightened me. One of my earliest memories is from when I was four years old. My mom had caught me staring at the lightning outside my bedroom window. She got mad at me for reasons I no longer remember. Despite that lightning always comforted me, made me feel like I wasn't alone.

With the next thunderclap, Percy and Sally awakened. Both sitting up, eyes wide,

"Hurricane." Sally said Panicked

I knew that was absolutely crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten that. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.

Sally sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Grover of all people stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... how do I say this? He wasn't exactly Grover.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you two thinking?"

Percy's mother looked at us all in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Percy, Joey," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd somehow understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...

Sally looked at Percy and I sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy, Joey. Tell me now!"

We both stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand and Mrs. Dodds. Sally stared at the two of us, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me and Percy are rain jackets, and said, "Get to the car. all of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were hooves.
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