THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.

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She jogged down the hill. I watched her until she reached the cabins. She didn’t look back once.
***
Two days later it was my birthday. I never advertised the date, because it always fell right after camp, so
none of my camp friends could usually come, and I didn’t have that many mortal friends. Besides, getting
older didn’t seem like anything to celebrate since I’d gotten the big prophecy about me destroying or
saving the world when I turned sixteen. Now I was turning fifteen. I was running out of time.
My mom threw me a small party at our apartment. Paul Blofis came over, but that was okay because
Chiron had manipulated the Mist to convince everyone at Goode High School that I had nothing to do
with the band room explosion. Now Paul and the other witnesses were convinced that Kelli had been a
crazy, firebomb-throwing cheerleader, while I had simply been an innocent bystander who’d panicked
and ran from the scene. I would still be allowed to start as a freshman at Goode next month. If I wanted
to keep my record of getting kicked out of school every year, I’d have to try harder.
Tyson came to my party, too, and my mother baked two extra blue cakes just for him. While Tyson
helped my mom blow up party balloons, Paul Blofis asked me to help him in the kitchen.
As we were pouring punch, he said, “I hear your mom signed you up for driver’sed this fall.”
“Yeah.It’s cool. I can’t wait.”
Seriously, I’d been excited about getting my license forever, but I guess my heart wasn’t in it anymore,
and Paul could tell. In a weird way he reminded me of Chiron sometimes, how he could look at your and
actuallysee your thoughts. I guess it was that teacher aura.
“You’ve had a rough summer,” he said. “I’m guessing you lost someone important.And…girl trouble?”
I stared at him. “How do you know that? Did my mom—”
He held up his hands. “Your mom hasn’t said a thing. And I won’t pry. I just know there’s something
unusual about you, Percy. You’ve got a lot going on that I can’t figure. But I was also fifteen once, and
I’m just guessing from your expression…Well, you’ve had a rough time.”
I nodded. I’d promised my mom I would tell Paul the truth about me, but now didn’t seem the time. Not
yet. “I lost a couple of friends at this camp I go to,” I said. “I mean, not close friends, but still—”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.And, uh, I guess the girl stuff…”
“Here.” Paul handed me some punch.“To your fifteenth birthday.And to a better year to come.”
We tapped our paper cups together and drank.
“Percy, I kind of feel bad giving you one more thing to think about,” Paul said. “But I wanted to ask you
something.”
“Yeah?”