Rick Riordan The Sea Monsters - 02
" Come on , dear ," my mother called again . " Last day of school . You should be excited !
You ' ve almost made it .'" " Coming ," I managed . I felt under my pillow . My fingers closed reassuringly around the ballpoint pen I always slept with . I brought it out , studied the Ancient Greek writing engraved on the side : Anaklusmos . Riptide . I thought about uncapping it , but something held me back . I hadn ' t used Riptide for so long ….
Besides , my mom had made me promise not to use deadly weapons in the apartment after I ' d swung a javelin the wrong way and taken out her china cabinet . I put Anaklusmos on my nightstand and dragged myself out of bed .
I got dressed as quickly as I could . I tried not to think about my nightmare or monsters or the shadow at my window . Have to get away . Have to warn them ! What had Grover meant ? I made a three-fingered claw over my heart and pushed outward — an ancient gesture Grover had once taught me for warding off evil . The dream couldn ' t have been real . Last day of school . My mom was right , I should have been excited . For the first time in my life , I ' d almost made it an entire year without getting expelled . No weird accidents . No fights in the classroom . No teachers turning into monsters and trying to kill me with poisoned cafeteria food or exploding homework . Tomorrow , I ' d be on my way to my favorite place in the world — Camp Half- Blood . Only one more day to go . Surely even I couldn ' t mess that up . As usual , I didn ' t have a clue how wrong I was .
2
My mom made blue waffles and blue eggs for breakfast . She ' s funny that way , celebrating special occasions with blue food . I think it ' s her way of saying anything is possible . Percy can pass seventh grade . Waffles can be blue . Little miracles like that .
I ate at the kitchen table while my mom washed dishes . She was dressed in her work uniform — a starry blue skirt and a red-and-white striped blouse she wore to sell candy at Sweet on America . Her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail .
The waffles tasted great , but I guess I wasn ' t digging in like I usually did . My mom looked over and frowned . " Percy , are you all right ?" " Yeah ... fine ." But she could always tell when something was bothering me . She dried her hands and sat down across from me . " School , or ..." She didn ' t need to finish . I knew what she was asking . " I think Grover ' s in trouble ," I said , and I told her about my dream . She pursed her lips . We didn ' t talk much about the other part of my life . We tried to live as normally as possible , but my mom knew all about Grover .
" I wouldn ' t be too worried , dear ," she said . " Grover is a big satyr now . If there were a problem , I ' m sure we would ' ve heard from ... from camp ... ." Her shoulders tensed as she said the word camp . " What is it ?" I asked . " Nothing ," she said . " I ' ll tell you what . This afternoon we ' ll celebrate the end of school . I ' ll take you and Tyson to Rockefeller Center — to that skateboard shop you like ."
Oh , man , that was tempting . We were always struggling with money . Between my mom ' s night classes and my private school tuition , we could never afford to do special stuff like shop for a skateboard . But something in her voice bothered me . " Wait a minute ," I said . " I thought we were packing me up for camp tonight ." She twisted her dishrag . " Ah , dear , about that ... I got a message from Chiron last night ." My heart sank . Chiron was the activities director at Camp Half-Blood . He wouldn ' t contact us unless something serious was going on . " What did he say ?" " He thinks ... it might not be safe for you to come to camp just yet . We might have to postpone ."