Son of Perseus and Artemis – Here it is

AU:

Thoughts are in Italics, except for the flashback.

NOTE: I slightly rewrote it when I reploaded it.

Percy POV

It was the first day of my (hopefully) last year of school at Goode High. Annabeth, Grover, Nico, Thalia, Clarisse, and a lot of demigods had decided to come to Goode High as well, seeing that it was close to camp. It was also close enough to Olympus, so that Annabeth could redesign Olympus each day after school.

Three weeks had passed since the Titans were defeated and the gods had kept their promises and were already claiming all their demigod children. A few of the attempts to make it to camp ended with the demigod or the satyr dying, but most got to camp safely.

Since the ending of the Titan war, almost every god or goddess had gone and given me some form of a gift. Apollo had somehow 'fixed' my archery skills, while Artemis had given me a golden crossbow that attached to the end of my sword when not in use. It had a rapid-fire mode when used, and didn't seem to require any crossbow bolts. Meanwhile, my father gave me a blue BMW convertible that could be used in water. He had also done something to Riptide after 'borrowing' it at 3 am in the morning, but I hadn't uncapped Riptide since the end of the war.

Other gods had not been as straightforward in giving gifts. Zeus had left a note on my desk, allowing me to fly into his domain as long as I didn't cause any trouble. Athena gave me a permanent intelligence boost sometime between heading back to Camp Half Blood and beating Nico at chess for the first time without trying. I would probably never match up to Annabeth's intelligence level though.

Meanwhile, Hephaestus had secretly modified my father's present to include anti-monster weaponry. He had also installed a celestial bronze machine gun on the top of Annabeth's house in San Fransisco, so that me and Annabeth could visit her parents without coming under attack by monsters. The machine gun used bullets that her father had designed earlier. The only difference was that Hephaestus had made the bullets from the damaged weapons left over from the war.

In the end, it was Aphrodite's gift that had meant the most to me. I still remember our conversation in Central Park even though it was a week ago.

Flashback

As I sat on a wooden bench in Central Park, I watched Apollo go lower and lower in the sky until his chariot was just a pinprick of light in the sky. Central Park was one of the most beautiful places in New York, and one of the very last woodland places in the city that hadn't been cut down .If I had never been in the war, I could never have imagined that war would be fought in such a peaceful place.

As I watched the trees swaying with the wind, a pink mist appeared and soon solidified into Aphrodite, who was dressed normally for once. I had to admit, Aphrodite was flawless, and one of the prettiest people I had ever met other than Annabeth.

But then again, Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love herself, so naturally, she would be flawless. Whenever Aphrodite appears however, nothing good can ever happen. She was probably going to tell me how she was going to mess with my love life with Annabeth. Again

"Good evening Percy", Aphrodite said, "I have some awesome news for you"

"Aphrodite", I sighed, "can you please stop messing with my love life whenever you feel like it?"

"Actually", she said, "That is what I'm here to do. There is actually an important reason why I was playing with your love life. As you might recall, Zeus can be quite overprotective of the other gods and goddesses, suspicious of anything that could possibly overthrow them. It was one of the reasons for the pack of the Big Three.".

As she said this, thunder shook the sky above, even though there were clear skies above. I guess that Zeus was listening in, and getting a little pissed at what Aphrodite would be telling me.

"He decided", Aphrodite continued, "that anyone who was in love, or meant to be with someone living on Olympus should be made to love another, as he feared that their children would be very powerful. Although I am an exception, along with many of the minor gods, the person you are truly meant to be with wasn't an exception. Therefore, I made you love Annabeth, and played with your love lives. But as a gift, I will stop messing with your feelings for Annabeth, or anyone else even though Zeus declared it to be law. Instead, I will just let natural love take its course."

End Flashback

My newly upgraded intelligence had figured it out in a matter of seconds. I loved someone who lived on Olympus, and my feelings for Annabeth had been artificially generated by Aphrodite in accordance to Zeus's law. Aphrodite had refused to tell me who it was, only that it was one of the goddesses. The next day, I had talked it over with Annabeth, and we decided just to be best friends. Aphrodite had kept her word, and my feelings towards Annabeth vanished the next day.

Just then, my thoughts were disrupted with Annabeth's yelling, "Percy! We're gonna be late for the first day of school. Let's go!". My mom, Sally, had gotten married with Paul a week earlier, and they were now on their honeymoon. Just to make sure that I was safe, they had gotten Annabeth to move in with me.

I groaned as I fought the urge to go back to sleep while climbing out of bed, and opening the curtains to let the suns warming rays inside. My normally messy room was now neat and tidy, with shiny celestial bronze weapons up on a rack, my books on the bookcase, and my clothes in the hamper instead lying all over the floor. I guess it was just a side effect of whatever Athena had done to my brain.

I quickly grabbed and pulled a blue shirt out of my closet along with a pair of jeans. I had recently noticed that the closet would restock itself with new clothes each day. Aphrodite was probably messing around with my closet, as it only started a week ago.

Running downstairs, I grabbed my boots, and headed for my car with Annabeth in tow. It was considerably nice outside, with a light wind that instantly destroyed my neatly gelled up hair style. A flash of silver reflecting off the sun caught my eye, but there was nothing there.

Probably just a random reflection I thought and drove to school.

As I parked my car in the parking lot and climbed out, me and Annabeth were both greeted with a huge zap of electricity that caused us to yelp and jump into the air. Turning around, I instantly recognized the girl with blue eyes, black spiky hair, and an extremely familiar charm bracelet. She was wearing a "Death to Barbie" t-shirt and was leaning against a black Porsche parked several cars away.

Wait a second. Thalia? Isn't she supposed to be with the Hunters? I thought as Nico appeared right next to her.

"Hey, Thalia", said Annabeth, "Aren't you supposed to be with the hunters? And there was no need to electrocute us!" she said, echoing my thoughts.

"Artemis gave us time off from the Hunt" Thalia said, "Were waiting for Zeus to refill our ranks. Nico somehow pulled the car out of the Underworld and drove me here from camp this morning.".

As she walked closer, I realized that she was holding hands with Nico while holding a black box shaped object in her other hand. She had also taken off her lieutenant's tiara. I decided not to say anything about their intertwined hands, for fear of getting electrocuted again.

I guessed that the box was one of Hephaestus' new monster detectors that he loaned out to demigods who were not in camp.

Walking over to the front of Good High, Nico began talking about his break. I looked around and instantly recognized several of the demigods in the front of the school.

The Stoll brothers were standing by the door, pickpocketing and playing pranks as usual. Travis had his mischievous grin as usual and had apparently pickpocketed some guys wallet, while Connor, was watching for a good target for his can of whipped cream. Towards the front tables, I saw Clarisse having an arm wrestling competition with a senior football player while the rest of the Ares demigods were either picking fights of bullying the younger students. Several of the Athena demigods were playing chess with the nerds and drawing a random blueprint. I also spotted the Demeter demigods crouched next to the flower bed next so the school walls. The dead patches of grass that had always laid there due to the shade had somehow grown back, healthy as ever. Finally, the Aphrodite demigods were chatting with the jocks, and one of them was applying makeup to a mortal girl.

It seemed that one fourth the population of Goode High now consisted of demigods. I made a mental note to ask Zeus to create magical borders around Goode High, just like the ones in Camp Half-Blood, so that the large number of demigods inside would not be attacked by monsters. Also, I really didn't want my stepfather's school to be completely destroyed by hoards of dracaenae or toasted by fire-breathing Chimaera.

As we walked up the concrete stairs, I noticed an blond haired girl with hazel eyes sitting on the "skateboarder's rail", the railing in front of the school that skateboarders frequented. Her hair sparkled in the sun and her eyes looked warm and caring. She was wearing a purple dress with sparkling purple moon earrings and dark sandals. Her face was covered in makeup, with eyeshadow, blush, and all the other makeup stuff that Aphrodite girls would normally put on.

I had to admit, she was ethereally gorgeous, and somehow managed to stand out through the crowd of students catching up on what they did that summer. Some of the jocks that had failed to notice the Aphrodite demigods were now staring at her lustfully, yet she looked very annoyed and was probably becoming uncomfortable of the jocks' stares.

Probably thinking of how they could get her to become their girlfriend, and then knock her up later on in the year.

She was probably one of the Aphrodite demigods from camp I thought. I usually stayed clear of Aphrodite campers, so it wasn't surprising that I had never seen her before. Although she looked lost and confused, the expression on her face was quite familiar, but my brain had somehow shorted itself out, and was unable to remember who she reminded me of.

As I looked on, an invisible force tugged me towards her direction. Pulling away from Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia, who were still animatedly chatting about their break, I obeyed the invisible forces and walked over. I ended up having to shove aside the jocks that had gathered in front of her, and I leapt up the railing to sit beside her. When I turned around to face her, I realized it was a big mistake that I had done so. I was instantly dumbstruck by her beauty, and my mind instantly became blank.

Wow, she looks even more stunning up close!

WAIT! Bad Percy. I'm not supposed to find her attractive. Aphrodite said that I was in love with a goddess, not a demigod.

I quickly closed off my thoughts before they rambled on and decided that the safest thing to do was to welcome her to school and ask her if she needed help.

"Hey", I said "my name's Percy. Are you new here? I can show you around if you want".

Smiling radiantly, she said, "Sure, My names Melanie."

Gods. I really loved her smile. But still Percy, act NORMAL. Maybe Aphrodite was wrong and was leading you on.

I examined her schedule. We had all of the classes together

"Great! We have the same classes together", I said, grinning, "School is going to start in 10 minutes anyways, so I'll show you where your locker and classes are".

We both leapt down, pushed away the jocks, who were now asking her out on dates, and headed towards the main doors. To be honest, she looked more anoyed and uncomfortable with every jock that asked her out on a date, or what her number was.

As we pushed through the noisy hall, avoiding the skateboarders and rollerbladers who were skating through the hallway, I scanned the ever growing crowd for Thalia, Annabeth, and Nico. Coincidently, Melanie's locker was right in between Nico's and Annabeth's. I had convinced my dad, Paul, earlier to get us all lockers together.

Nico, Thalia, and Annabeth ran up to their lockers a while later, with Grover who was using his fake crutches again, along with his rasta cap and black converses that hid his feet. Grover never managed to wrap his head around the fact that the Mist would hide his feet and horns, so he always insisted on this disguise when he wasn't at Camp.

"Hey Seaweed Brain, I was looking all over for you. Where were you?" asked Annabeth as she crammed her books in her locker.

"I was helping the new girl. Her name's Melanie" I said.

As I went over to Melanie and grasped her hand to pull her over, I immediately became self-conscious of how close we were standing, and how our hands fit perfectly together. I blushed slightly as I pulled her up to a stop in front of them.

Shaking off the weird feelings that had developed while pulling Melanie along, I said, "Melanie, these are my friends, Nico, Thalia, Annabeth, and Grover. Guys, this is Melanie.". Grover stared at me for a while before welcoming her. Then it hit me. Grover and I still had our empathy links. The fact that he saw my thoughts about Melanie sent me blushing harder.

Travis and Connor appeared by Thalia's right and said "And were the Stoll brothers". They then proceed to steal Thalia's wallet, and were knocked out by a large burst of electricity that leapt from Thalia's fingers.

"Just don't trust them with your stuff", I said with an amused grin.

They began talking about random stuff like school food, universities, and restaurants while I finished transferring my stuff from my bag to my locker. Overall, Melanie easily fitted in with them.

Within ten minutes, the crowd in the hallway began to thin out as everyone headed towards their classes. Picking up my English binder and my notebook, we left the Stoll brothers on the floor and headed to English.

We entered the noisy classroom, waiting for our new teacher, as the former teacher had retired. English was one of my worser classes due to the fact that I couldn't read English without the letters in words becoming a huge jumbled mess. It was just a side effect of dyslexia that all demigods suffered from.

As Melanie gracefully sat down at the desk next to mine, I couldn't help staring at her. Again.

Percy! STOP. NOW. Your in love with a goddess, not Melanie.

I finally managed to pull my eyes away when Thalia walked between our desks and sat in the desk in front of me.

Why was I thinking like this? Was she charmspeaking, just like Silena could?

But her lips hand not opened a single millimeter when I was staring.

The teacher finally arrived, the clicking of shoes on the linoleum floor indicating her arrival.

She looked very familiar, until I realized that it was Athena, in young adult form, wearing a blue blouse and jeans. The owl earrings and the wink she gave Annabeth as she walked past her desk gave it away.

I shook my head in disbelief as Nico and Thalia groaned in unison while Athena headed towards the front of the class.

Athena was going to be my English teacher? What was she doing here?

Athena had become much friendlier with me and Poseidon when I had stopped dating Annabeth earlier, but having the goddess of wisdom teaching me English was going to be a little too much.

"Good Morning Class", Athena announced, "My name it Athena Wiz, and I will be your English teacher for this semester. We will be doing things differently this year."

"This year", Athena continued, "the English department has decided to add Greek Mythology to the curriculum. We are still testing this out, so we are going to study the works of Shakespeare first, then we shall begin the Greek Mythology Unit.".

Great, I thought, Reading a Shakespeare novel with dyslexia. I just probably failed the first unit before even starting. Dyslexia and Shakespeare's old English just didn't mix.

I was then jerked out of my thoughts by Melanie, who was smiling brightly and waving her hand in front of my face.

"Percy", she repeated, "Are you there?". Turning around, I made the mistake of looking at her again, which flooded my brain with thoughts about her.

Shaking my head to clear my brain of thoughts about Melanie, I blushed and managed to stammer out, "Um.. Yeah, need anything?"

"Do you have an extra pencil?", Melanie asked, slightly blushing, "I seem to have forgotten mine at home".

Does she like me too? Its not the first time Aphrodite had led me astray. But then again, Percy, that was her gift, so she wouldn't be leading me astray with it. It was probably just the blush makeup she put on.

Still flustered from my thoughts, I quickly gave her my extra pencil as Athena walked through the rows, distributing copies of Hamlet.

Opening my copy of Hamlet, I frowned. Instead of the mass of jumbled words that would usually result from me trying to read English, the words looked fine. I was surprised to find that my dyslexia didn't act up. The words on the page were nice, clear and easy to read.

Reaching over to the next row of desks, I tapped Annabeth on the shoulder. "Hey", "I whispered, why can we read this. Shouldn't our dyslexia be acting up?."

"Thats because Athena converted the book into Greek, Seaweed Brain", Annabeth said under her breath.

Looked closer at Hamlet, I realized Annabeth was right. The entire book was Greek.

Looking over at the cover of Melanie's copy, I realized that it was in English, as the title itself was an incomprehensible mass of letters.

So Melanie wasn't an Aphrodite demigod, just a normal mortal. I thought. I knew that there was something peculiar about Melanie that I was overlooking, but whatever it was, it was still escaping my thoughts.

I flipped open to Scene 1, Act 1, and began reading. Reading Greek made Shakespeare easy to understand, even if Shakespeare wasn't Greek.

I guess English class isn't so bad when you have Athena as your teacher after all.

AU: Please review!