Daddy Issues

Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. After Percy changed and came back out, campers pointed at him and murmured something about toilet water.

Annabeth and Y/N showed him a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if they didn't get to the top fast enough.

Finally they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."

"Whatever."

"It wasn't my fault."

She looked at him skeptically and said, "You need to talk to the Oracle."

"Who?"

"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron," Annabeth looked at Y/N, eyes holding some hope. Ofcourse, she wants to go on a quest. She's been waiting for so long.

"How is he supposed to know that?" Y/N said and turned to Percy with a smile, "It's just someone who kind of predicts the future? You'll get it later."

"And how is that even a proper explanation?" Annabeth sighed, "Anyways, I'm getting late. Y/N can tell you the rest."

She probably left because she wasn't that great in explaining things politely, but mostly cause Percy did annoy her with his sassy comments. In these instances, Y/N's bright smile calmed people down instead of overwhelming them any more than they already are. Besides, Annabeth wanted someone to take her place in taking care of the newcomers. She felt like Y/N was a good candidate for it, and she wouldn't lose her cool that easily.

Percy stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give him a straight answer for once. He wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at him from the bottom, so his heart skipped a beat when he noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if he was a long-lost friend.

He didn't know what else to do and waved back.

"Don't encourage them," Y/N warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

"Naiads," Percy repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."

Y/N sighed, "Sorry, I'm getting used to this too. But don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."

"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"

"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."

"Half-human and half-what?"

"I think you know."

Percy didn't want to admit it, but he did. He felt a tingling in the limbs, a sensation he sometimes felt when his mom talked about his dad.

"God," he said. "Half-god."

Y/N nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."

"That's...crazy."

"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"

"But those are just-" Percy almost said myths again. Then he remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, he might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods-"

"Demigods," she said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."

"Then who's your dad?"

Y/N's hands tightened around the pier railing. Percy got the feeling he'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.

"I...I don't know. I have an idea, well we all do but I'm still..." she cleared her throat and said, "undetermined. Uh, maybe cabin seven? And my mom is human. Well, Annabeth's dad is a professor in West Point. I can't tell you the details, but maybe she'll tell you at some point."

"He's human."

"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive?"

"Who's her mom, then?"

"Cabin six."

"Meaning?"

Y/N straightened and smiled, "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle. She's incredible, you've got no idea."

"And my dad?"

"Undetermined," Y/N said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."

"Except my mother. She knew."

"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."

"My dad would have. He loved her."

Y/N gave him a cautious look. She didn't want to burst his bubble. She can't outright say that he might face what she's facing. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."

"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"

Y/N ran her palm along the rail. "As far as I know, the gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always...Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."

"And you are one?"

Y/N wished he wouldn't be so blunt about it. It hurt to know that your parent don't have time or care enough to claim you.

Percy thought about some of the kids he'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. He'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.

"So-sorry. So I'm stuck here," Percy said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"

"It's fine. You didn't know. Also, it depends," Y/N said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble-about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."

"So monsters can't get in here?"

Y/N shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."

"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"

"Practice fights. Practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?"

"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."

"So...you're a year-rounder?"

"I just arrived a few months ago," she said. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace "Every August, on the last day of summer session, the campers get a bead for surviving another year. Annabeth has been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."

"Why did she come so young?"

"Well," Y/N chuckled, "I don't know. She didn't tell me either. You've been awfully interested in her."

"Oh I'm just curious" Percy stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So...I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"

"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless..."

"Unless?"

"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens."

"Do you know something about summer solstice? I mean, back in the sick room," he said, "when Annabeth and you were feeding me that stuff-"

"Ambrosia."

"Yeah. She asked me something about the summer solstice."

Y/N's shoulders tensed, and asked "Um, do YOU know something?"

"Well...no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"

She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. I don't have much idea. Even Annabeth doesn't and she hates it. Maybe they aren't telling her because of me? She said it was okay when she went to Olympus."

"Hold on! She's been to Olympus?!"

Y/N explained it to him about the big annual council meeting. She sighed at the end of it and said, "See, when you came, Annabeth was hoping...I mean- Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, she thought both of you could work together. She thought you might know something."

Percy shook his head. He felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Take your time to understand things, but...it will be better if you were fast. Because...you know, it's you. Annabeth wanted a quest and she thinks she's not too young," Y/N chuckled, "Now that I think about it, she thought that you can be her chance to get a quest. She thought that she can make plans and find a solution if they would just tell her the problem in hand...Maybe that's why she wanted to form an alliance with the son of-"

Y/N shut up immediately. Percy was too hungry to pin point those words. He could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. She heard his stomach growl and laughed.

"Come on," Y/N said pulling him by his wrist and as if to save him from the embarrassment, she added, "I'm hungry."

Percy rubbed the back of his head with his left hand and looked at the path, instead of her face. He was indeed embarrassed.

As they walked towards the familiar cabin, he said, "So...didn't you try to find out your...?"

"Oh, yeah I didn't really. I mean, I want to but like I said, getting a quest is a rare chance. Besides, I wanted to find it out between quests cause frankly, no one in their right mind would give a quest to solve their daddy issues." Y/N realized her words and gasped, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I meant my dad-"

"I get it. What about your mom?"

"My mom's a housewife, used to be a piano teacher. And...I don't know who my real father is. I just knew he walked out on me and my mom when I was a baby. My mom never said it but by the way she talked about him, I just assumed that by 'he is a very busy man', she meant he left us behind." Y/N blushed and said, "Sorry, you probably find it annoying to hear me."

"No! It's okay...I, um, you can tell me...if you feel comfortable."

That's right, Y/N realized it only when Percy said it but...she felt comfortable around him. Luke was friendly, sure, but she couldn't be open about herself before. What did Percy have that he didn't? Maybe it was because he was also new to all this and it felt comforting that he was as confused as she was. He actually paid attention to what she was saying....unlike the others. She couldn't blame them though. All of them were too busy.

"Well, nothing. You just got here and so, long story in short, my mother later met a man when I was 5 years old and got married." Y/N smiled, "He knows about all this and...oh, we're here."

Percy looked at cabin eleven in front of him. He didn't realize that he was still hungry. Their walk turned into a stroll while they were talking. Percy looked at his right hand, still gripped by the girl who nursed him.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat, "I can't go in my room with you holding me like this."

Y/N blushed and immediately released his hand. With a chuckle, Percy entered the cabin and disappeared from her sight. Her cheeks were still rosy. It wasn't the same with Luke. He was like someone to look up to.

But Percy.

There was definitely something different about him, that just made her...look out for him and want to take care of him.

Or she was just overthinking. Yep, that has to be it.