BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

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Leo
‘SMART CALL BACK THERE,’ Percy said, ‘choosing the air-conditioning.’
He and Leo had just searched the museum. Now they were sitting on a bridge that spanned the
Kladeos River, their feet dangling over the water as they waited for Frank and Hazel to finish
scouting the ruins.
To their left, the Olympic valley shimmered in the afternoon heat. To their right, the visitors’ lot
was crammed with tour buses. Good thing the Argo II was moored a hundred feet in the air, because
they never would’ve found parking.
Leo skipped a stone across the river. He wished Hazel and Frank would get back. He felt awkward
hanging out with Percy.
For one thing, he wasn’t sure what kind of small talk to make with a guy who’d recently come back
from Tartarus. Catch that last episode of Doctor Who? Oh, right. You were trudging through the
Pit of Eternal Damnation!
Percy had been intimidating enough before – summoning hurricanes, duelling pirates, killing giants
in the Colosseum …
Now … well, after what happened in Tartarus, it seemed like Percy had graduated to a totally
different level of butt-kickery.
Leo had trouble even thinking of him as part of the same camp. The two of them had never been at
Camp Half-Blood at the same time. Percy’s leather necklace had four beads for four completed
summers. Leo’s leather necklace had exactly none.
The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about that he wanted
to punch Percy in the face.
Leo kept thinking he should bring it up, just to clear the air, but the timing never seemed right. And,
as the days went by, the subject got harder and harder to broach.
‘What?’ Percy asked.
Leo stirred. ‘What, what?’
‘You were staring at me, like, angry.’
‘Was I?’ Leo tried to muster a joke, or at least a smile, but he couldn’t. ‘Um, sorry.’
Percy gazed at the river. ‘I suppose we need to talk.’ He opened his hand and the stone Leo had
skipped flew out of the stream, right into Percy’s palm.
Oh, Leo thought, we’re showing off now?
He considered shooting a column of fire at the nearest tour bus and blowing up the gas tank, but he
decided that might be a tad dramatic. ‘Maybe we should talk. But not –’