I woke up, and put my Camp Half-Blood shirt on. It was missing its sleeves, and I was glad. Momslept in, and Evelyn was already gone. I walked out of the cabin, and got breakfast. I finishedquickly, and ran down to Cabin 11, Hermes Cabin. I banged on the door, and a boy opened it. Hehad blonde hair, and brown eyes, and was about twelve.“Is CJ here?”“Um yeah.” He said softly. He peered back into his cabin. “CJ! SOMEONE IS HERE TO SEE YOU!”He called.CJ came out, and smiled at me. “Hey Poindexter.” She said softly. She told the boy to go backinside, and he did. “So, what brings you from Cabin 21 to Cabin 11?”I shrugged. “I don’t know. Wanted to hang out.” I said putting my hands in my pockets. CJ eyed mehard, and smiled.“Alright… where too?”I smiled, and grabbed her hand. We walked through Camp, and I found a tall tree. I started to climbit, and CJ just watched.“What are you doing?”“Climbing. Come on… I mean, if your scared then—”“I’m not scared!” She said as she flew up. I climbed up, and sat down on a branch. She sat downnext to me and folded her arms. I smiled, and nudged her. She bit back a smile, and I looked downat the Camp.“Um… heading to Olympus today. Wanna come with?” I asked softly.CJ looked up, and her eyes widened. “Well… I guess I could.” She said now smiling. I smiled back,and heard small laughter. I looked down, and nudged CJ.“Hey… so I can’t tell anyone, because I swore on the Styx, but I never said I couldn’t show you.”“A loop hole? No wonder why I like you.” She said putting her head on my shoulder. I pointed down,towards an opening in the woods, and CJ, looked up. Evelyn and Knole were down there, laughing,and talking. They were holding hands, and Knole kissed her cheek.CJ looked at me, and her eyes raised. “Their… together?”I nodded, and she just stared. “Huh… never thought about it before.”We all hopped into a large taxi, and headed to New York City. Mom was still in the clothes she worewhen she returned from Tartarus, but had washed up. Lura and Devin talked to her about whoknows what, and Knole had his hat, and fake legs on. I wrapped an arm around CJ, and she pushedit off.“Hey!” I protested.“What? You did it wrong!” She said rolling her eyes.“I did? How?” I asked carefully. CJ looked at me, and rolled her eyes again.“Ugh… boys.”“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said angrily. CJ rolled her eyes, and leaned back on me.“OH! That’s what you meant.” I said wrapping my arm around her. She gave a small laugh, androlled her eyes. “Yeah pinhead.”We got into the Empire State Building and my eyes widened. “How is this place Olympus?!” I askedout loud.“You’ll see.” Devin said with a smile.We all walked up to the counter, and the guard’s eyes fell on Mom. “Astraea?!” He said with shock.She nodded, and he tossed her a key.We walked onto the elevator as mom put in the key. It started to move, and it got faster and faster.Oh gods… I’m gonna die.I squeezed my eyes shut, and then opened them. The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.Holy Hera this place was beautiful. “The God’s want to talk to all of us, and you kids especially, okay?” Lura explained, handing apouting Greyson to Devin. We all nodded, and Mom seemed nervous. She looked at Lura, and Icould tell they talked about this on the Taxi. She nodded, and Mom told us to go in, and let herthink.We walked into the Thrown Room, and oh Gea this place was huge. The gods all looked at us, and Isaw dad. He sat in his thrown, and I saw a familiar pain in his eyes. He didn’t know mom was back.“Well… I suppose you children are aware of what you have done?” Hera asked.We shook our heads, and Evelyn spoke up. “Um… not really. Your highness—Juno—,” Hera’s image
flickered, and Evelyn went on. “We don’t know what we did, our why we were sent on this quest.”The gods whispered, but nodded.“You are aware that the Giants rose not that long ago… they were not supposed to be here.” Athenasaid firmly.We all kind of looked at each other. We hadn’t exactly thought about that.“Um… no.” I said softly.“How could they know? We didn’t even know.” My dad spat to Athena. She glared at him, butstayed silent.“I do believe he has a point.” Hades said, from a shadowy thrown area.“I was there. They grew more powerful after a quick trip to Tartarus.” Poseidon said nodding.“Can we like… not talk about Tartarus?” My dad asked bitterly. I could hear the pain in his voice.“Listen boy, you gotta deal with it.” Zeus spat.I could feel my dad’s anger, and I looked at Knole. He seemed so confused, and torn with all of theGod’s emotions.“Father, give him time.” Artemis said sternly.Zeus rolled his eyes, and Dionysus started to talk. “I think this all is a stupid prank from Hermes.” Hesaid quietly.“EXCUSE ME?!” Hermes said raising from his thrown.“I mean, yeah.” Dionysus went on.The gods started to fight, and Dad, Zeus, and Athena were really going at each other.“SHUT UP!”All eyes went to Aphrodite, who seemed flustered beyond measure. “This is not helping thesituation!” She said angrily.“I agree.” Apollo teased.“Shut it sunny boy!” Ares defended.Apollo mocked ares, and rolled his eyes.“The point is we have no clue how it happened. Gea is gone, like Kronos.” Demeter said firmly.The gods nodded, and dad slumped back in his thrown. The guy looked like a mental break down…I felt bad.“Kronos is not gone.”We all looked up, and Mom walked in.