A maiden's son.

Percy POV
I don’t remember much of that year. Pretty much the usual, went to Goode High School, spent Christmas time with my friends and family, stopped a group of demented ram-headed midgets with shotguns from ruining prom night. Just normal teen school-year stuff. Truthfully my mind was on three things other than school: Annabeth, me becoming the camp director, and the new prophecy. For the Annabeth part, I still haven’t stopped mentally slapping myself for that night on the Argus II. We haven’t spoken about it sense but I think she’s forgiven me. As for becoming the camp director, I think it’s wonderful and terrifying at the same time. I mean, I was almost nineteen but… I was only almost nineteen. Chiron had centuries of experience being a leader and I haven’t even had seven years. Why did he think I could take care of hundreds of campers? I would have to stay in Camp-Halfblood for the rest of my life, which is cool I guess. Any problems the campers had were to go directly to me. At least Mr. D was back on Olympus so I wouldn’t be stuck playing pinochle with him forever.
The thing that worried me most, of course, was the prophecy. The worst thing about prophecies is that you never know when they’re going to happen until they do. You could be minding your own business on the east side buying a hotdog when some evil anti-god murderboss comes along to kill you. I don’t know who this child could be, or if the satyrs have found him yet. All year these thoughts poisoned my mind. Luckily Annabeth was recovering and at my school to keep me sane.
Finally, after a long, long year of school the last day was here. My ADHD seemed to be in overdrive, though, and I kept glancing at the clock literally every ten seconds. My math teacher was going on about how she’d miss all of her “wonderful baby students.” I tried my best to contain myself but I couldn’t help but tap my pencil end repeatedly against my thigh. My mortal friend Zack glanced at me with worry. He had hypersensitive ears and my pencil tapping was probably bothering him. I just shrugged and he turned back toward the teacher. It seemed like days when the bell rang and now the day was finally…halfway over.
The entire class poured out to get to the cafeteria. Paul told me that on the last day of school they served cake and sodas. I really needed a coke. I was on my way when a noise stopped me in the locker hall. I could hear faint laughing coming from the music room just a few feet away from me. I recognized the voices, popular kids. Sure enough when I silently cracked open the door I saw a group of five; three jocks and two beauty queens, surrounding a scrawny figure with black hair. The bullies were all sophomores but loved to cause trouble almost every day, usually to the same person.
“Whatcha’ gonna do about it,” one of the jocks said, “Nothin! YOU never do nothin and your boyfriend isn’t here to protect you.”
Two jocks held up the figure while the third punched her in the gut. The beauty queens then went to work with their makeup. I stepped in while they were all distracted and sure enough, it was Andi Warwick being picked on. Andi was one of those, grungy girls as you’d say. She always wore tattered jeans, band shirts, combat boots, and flannels. She had obsidian hair that was cut short and dyed with a few streaks of red. She always wore contacts that made her eyes gleam purple so no one really knew what her real eye color was. She also had piercings in her lips, ears, and left eyebrow. When she transferred to our school this year of course the popular kids had to pick on her. They had been waiting for some scrawny piece of meat to roll in and sure enough, an almost stereotypically-emo girl found her way in here. Ever since the first beating you could usually find her shivering in some broom closet to avoid reality. I just wished I’d have found her before the popular kids did. Andi had become one of my close friends and I did my best to protect her. The beauty queens were furiously applying fluorescent eye shadows and other un-godly products even Aphrodite would boycott. Luckily the jocks were too busy laughing and starting at Andi to notice me sneak up on Rashad Tarkington, the leader of the group. I shoved him into the beauty queens and all three fell to the floor.
“How many times have I told you to lay off?!” I exclaimed.
The other two jocks backed away but Turk quickly picked himself back up and threw a left hook, which I blocked. I was able to catch his wrist just right to flip him behind me. They all finally got the message and decided to split before I had to reintroduce them to my fists. I didn’t like beating them up, truthfully, but I hated them beating up Andi even more. I put my arm around her shoulder.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, they must be learning their lesson. I only got punched five times, slapped seven times, and shoved four times.”
She was shaking furiously. The makeup was smeared all over her face.
“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”
I pulled out a pack of Kleenexes from my locker, soaked them in the water fountain, and helped Andi rub off the makeup.
“Thanks,” she said, “For helping me. But you don’t have to, really. I’m used to it.”
“No one should have to endure something like that. Especially not someone as awesome as you.”
She flashed me one of her rare smiles.
“Thanks. Just don’t let your girlfriend know or she might get jealous.”
“Why would she? Annabeth would understand. You and I are just friends.”
“Well, you and me alone in the locker hall with you this close to me washing off blood and makeup from my face might send the wrong signal to someone at a distance”
She began to chuckle, which she almost never did. After all of the makeup had been cleaned off I led her to the cafeteria. By the time I arrived all the cake was gone and the only soda left was Mr. Pib, which I despised. Andi went to her own table, at the freshmens’ area. I didn’t know how she could survive another three years here. Hopefully someone else would come along to protect her. I finally located Annabeth and the seniors’ table.
“What took you so long Seaweed Brain?” She asked.
“Andi again.”
She got a more serious look on her face.
“Again? That poor girl. You’re so sweet for protecting her.”
“Well I don’t really have a choice. No one should be picked on like that.”
I sat down and Annabeth slid in close to me.
“Hey, one thing, how come I’ve never met her in person? You talk about how awesome a person she is I feel like I should meet her.”
“Oh she’s just worried that if you found out I’m kind of her guardian she’d be jealous.”
Annabeth looked away for a second and scrunched up her face like she does when she’s thinking.
“I wouldn’t be jealous, especially if all you were doing was keeping the bullies at bay. But I guess fear is too much of a paralytic.”
“I guess…”
The mood instantly changed when Annabeth slid a slice of cake and a can of Coke in my direction.
“It took some convincing but I managed to save you some because I noticed you weren’t here yet.”
I stared at her deeply in the eyes and my mouth twisted into a grin.
“Have I ever told you how awesome you are, Wise Girl?”
“You could stand to mention it a few more times.”
I pulled her into a deep kiss, which received just a bit of mocking from the students around us. One death glare from Annabeth shut them up immediately. The caffeine and sugar Annabeth managed to get me really calmed my nerves for the rest of the day.
The next few hours seemed to slip from my fingers and sure enough, I snapped back into reality driving my mom’s Fierro. I saw Annabeth chilling in the back seat with a huge grin on her face. It took me a moment to realize she was smirking at the stories my mom had been telling us in the passenger seat for the past twenty minutes.
“And I can just remember when he couldn’t even be in the same room as other girls…” she was saying, “And now look at him! Becoming the camp director, saving lives as a hobby, and finally in a romantic relationship.”
“Mom. Please, just stop.” I managed to choke out, blushing.
“Oh come on, Annabeth doesn’t seem to mind. I’m just proud of my baby growing up!”
“Yeah, seaweed brain,” Annabeth chuckled, “Besides, I like hearing all this stuff from your childhood. Gives me something to tease you about later.”
I almost wanted to throw myself out the door right then and there but luckily, camp was in sight. I offered to let my mom pass through the barrier for the ceremony but she had other things to take care of and left. Annabeth and I, hand in hand, walked through the camp entrance and towards the big house.
A few campers stopped to greet us but almost every summer-exclusive campers hadn’t arrived yet. I had gotten tons to texts (thankfully Leo developed a special demigod phone that operated on a different frequency) from my friends saying they’d try to get a day off from Camp Jupiter, life outside camp, and whatever else to see the ceremony.
Chiron had set up a lot of stuff, I guess changes in command didn’t happen as often as victory in a titan war because there was more decoration than after Kronos was defeated. The dining pavilion was filled to the brim with blue foods, brazier burned all around camp, and a small pavilion, almost like a gazeebo, was set up near the center of the cabin arch. The rest of the day went pretty much by camp standards until sunset. By that time more demigods from Camp Jupiter and other places had poured in. The last licks of sunlight bathed the air in a fiery orange. Even the sea was illuminated. I had stepped up to the podium along with Chiron and (Surprisingly) my father. He smiled at me proudly all the time Chiron spoke. Pretty soon he was presenting me with a special bead painted with two crossed tridents over a golden laurel, my own insignia of rank
“Percy Jackson,” Chiron began, “Do you accept the responsibility of leadership, that you will overlook and guide this camp for life?”
“I accept.”
“Do you understand the sacrifice it requires? That you might settle all disputes, govern all training, and mold these demigods fairly at your will, or suffer the punishment of the gods.”
“I understand.”
“Finally, do you relieve me, Chiron, from my duties so that I might live my days free from this task?”
“I do.”
“Then by the Gods, I deem you worthy of this rank. Does Lord Poseidon deem his child worthy?”
My father smiled brightly.
“Chiron,” he said, “You have taken care of this camp for so long but it is time for your retirement. If there is anyone else worthy of this task, it’s Percy.”
Chiron nodded and tied the bead to my camp necklace.
“Then it is done. Your task, Percy Jackson, is to care for these campers until you and the gods deem you unable, and you must choose a new heir.”
That last line made me lock eyes with Annabeth for a split second. Before I could think into it too much my dad placed his palm on my shoulder and, before yelling to the other campers, whispered the four words that made me as red the Ares cabin.
“Hopefully not too soon.”
He winked at me and turned towards the other campers.
“Hail Perseus Jackson, your new camp director.”
The crowd cheered and everyone dispersed to the dinning pavilion. Dinner was pretty pleasant. The food was good as always and the company was vibrant. The Ares campers were the only people who didn’t look too happy. Strangely, though, I thought I saw Brian Shumaker, son of Ares, mock me and Clarisse scold him. Sure enough she came up to me, patted me on the back, and said:
“I hate you, Prissy, but I know you’ll make a fine leader. Congrats.”
She walked away before I could reply. That moment was the one that left me in awe for most of the night. I talked with my dad, hung out with Annabeth, and said about a million “thank-yous.” The nigh was perfect, until we heard the scream.

Notes