Chapter 6 Chapter 6 The King of the Bathroom

Once I could accept the fact that the Latin teacher was a horse, we had a good time figuring it out along the way, however I was still very careful not to walk behind him.I've been a horse manure cleaner a few times in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, so I'm sorry to say that I don't trust the Chiron's "back" as much as its front. As we walked across the volleyball court, several students elbowed and pushed around. One of them accused me of the Minotaur horn I was holding, and another said, "It's him." Most of the students were older than me, and their satyr friends were older than Grover.The satyrs jogged around the pitch in orange half-breed T-shirts, their hairy buttocks and hind legs bared bare.I'm not usually a shy person, but the way they were staring at me made me uncomfortable, as if they were expecting me to do a back and forth somersault or something.

I looked back at the farm, and the house was much bigger than I thought.It is four stories high, with a sky blue background and white decorations, like a high-end holiday villa by the sea.I was looking at the copper eagle weathervane at the top of the gable when something caught my eye.A dark figure was pulling the curtains at the high window in the attic gable, and suddenly I was sure I was being watched. "What's that for?" I asked Chiron. He looked in the direction I pointed, and his smile froze immediately. "Just the attic." "Does anyone live there?"

"No," he said resolutely, "there is nothing alive." I think he's telling the truth, but I'm also sure something's moving the curtains. "Come on, Percy," Chiron said, his tone that had been mildly menacing now a little forced. "There's still a lot to learn." We walked through the strawberry field, and the students picked a lot of strawberries, and there were satyrs playing music on the reed flute. Chiron told me that the crops at the camp were of good quality and could supply restaurants in Mount Olympus and New York. "Here is where we come from for our funding," he explained. "And strawberries, they can be harvested with almost no care."

He said that Mr.D will have an influence on the plants in the orchard. When he is nearby, the plants will grow wildly. The grapes that grow best are wine grapes, but Mr.D is prohibited from planting, so this influence is Happened to strawberries. I watched as a satyr played his flute, and his music caused strips of worms to scatter in all directions, away from the speckled surface of the strawberries, looking a lot like victims of a fire fleeing a fire.I doubt whether Grover can play such magic, I don't know if he is still in the farm, being scolded by Mr.D. "Grover won't be in trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron, "I mean...he's a good Guardian, really."

Chiron sighed, taking off his tweed jacket and hanging it on his horse's back, which looked like a saddle. "Percy, Grover has a big dream, perhaps too big for common sense. In order to achieve his goal, he must first prove his courage by successfully becoming a Guardian, that is, he must find a new one. student, and take him safely to the Hill of Half-Blood." "But he did it!" "I may agree with you," said Chiron, "but it is not for me to judge. The satyr elders and Dionysus will decide, but I am afraid they do not consider the mission a success. Approaching, He lost you in New York, and then your mother's, uh... misadventure happened. Also, when you dragged Grover up and over the line, he was unconscious. In that case, elders May question Grover's mettle."

I'd love to protest that none of this is Grover's fault.I'm guilty of that too, and if I hadn't slipped away at the bus stop, he probably wouldn't have gotten into trouble. "Will he have a second chance?" The muscles in Chiron's face twitched. "Percy, this is probably Grover's second chance. Since his first mission went wrong five years ago, the elders were not in a hurry to give him another chance. The gods of Olympus know that, I once advised him to wait a little longer and try again, after all he is still young..." "How old is he?"

"Oh, he's twenty-eight." "What? He's in sixth grade?" "Percy, foster boys are half as mature as humans, and in the past six years, Grover has been at about the same level as a middle school student." "Terrible." "Indeed," Chiron agreed, "anyway, Grover is a late bloomer, unfulfilled, even by satyr standards, he hasn't even learned forest magic yet. Alas, he's so eager Going after his dream, maybe he has to find another job now..." "That's not fair." I said, "What happened to him the first time? Was it really that bad?"

Chiron quickly looked away and said, "Let's go around, shall we?" I wasn't ready to change the subject, this is, a thought popped into my head, when Chiron talked about his mother's misfortune, he seemed to deliberately avoid the word "death".The idea germinated in my mind, initially as a faint gleam of hope, and gradually took shape. "Chiron," I said, "if it's true that the gods and Olympus, and together..." "Yes, and then?" "Does that mean the underworld is real?" Chiron's face darkened. "Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully, "There is a place where the soul goes after death, but for now... until we know more... I urge you to put this Things get out of your head."

"What does 'until we know more' mean?" "Come on, Percy, let's go to the forest." After approaching the forest, I realized how big the forest is, accounting for at least a quarter of the area of ​​the valley.The trees here are so tall and lush, imagine that it's like no human has lived here since the Indians. Chiron said: "This forest hides something, if you want to try your luck, remember to bring a weapon for self-defense." "Hiding what?" I asked, "What does the weapon protect against?" "You'll see. Friday night is capture-the-flag night, do you have your own sword and shield?"

"my own?" Chiron said, "Ah, you probably don't. I think a size five might be fine. I'll go to the arsenal later." I want to ask him, does that kind of summer camp have an arsenal?But there are too many things to think about, so I didn't interrupt him.We walked on and saw the shooting range, the canoe lake, the stables (Chiron didn't seem to like it very much), the javelin throwing ring, the singing amphitheater, and the amphitheater where Chiron said they held sword fights. The competition of spears. "Competition?" I asked. "Challenge each other as a team of lodge members," he explained. "It's usually not life-threatening. Oh, and of course, we have restaurants too."

Chiron pointed to an open-air pavilion, the main structure made of white Greek columns, located on a hill.The gazebo also overlooks the sea and houses twelve stone picnic tables.This gazebo has no roof and no walls. "What do you do when it rains?" I asked. Chiron looked at me like this was a weird question. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to change the subject. Finally, he took me to see the cottages, a dozen of them, in the forest by the lake.The huts are arranged in a U-shape, with two buildings at the bottom of the U-shape, and a row on each side, with five buildings in each row.These huts are without a doubt the strangest complex of buildings I have ever seen in my life. There was a big brass number plate over each door, and the odd-numbered cottages were on the left, the even-numbered ones on the right, and the houses had nothing in common except that.Number Nine had a chimney like a small factory; Number Four had tomato vines on its walls and a roof of real turf;All the houses face a square the size of a football field, scattered with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds and a pair of basketball hoops (which made me quicken my pace unconsciously). In the center of the square was a huge stone fireplace, which smoldered even in the warm afternoon.A girl of about nine was tending the fire, prodding the coals with a stick. A pair of huts at the front of the square, No. 1 and No. 2, look like a couple's mausoleum, with heavy columns in front of the huge white marble box.No. 1 is the largest and thickest room among the twelve cabins. The smooth bronze door shone like a laser stereogram, as if lightning from different angles had left traces of light on the door.Cabin No. 2, by contrast, is more elegant, with thinner columns surrounded by wreaths of pomegranates and flowers, and carved peacocks on the walls. "Zeus and Sheila?" I guessed. "Correct answer," Chiron said. "Their hut looked empty." "Yes, there are a few cottages that are empty, and one or two of them have never been occupied at all." I see, every hut has its own god, twelve huts have twelve Olympian gods.But why are some cabins empty? I stopped before the first cottage on the left, number three. This house is not as tall as No. 1, it is a relatively slender and low cube.The exterior walls are rough gray stone, adorned with patches of shells and coral, as if the slabs had been dug straight out of the sea bed.I peeked in through the open door, and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Before he pulled me back, I could smell salt coming from inside, like wind blowing off the coast of Montauk.Inside the pearly luster of the walls, there were six beds covered with silk sheets, but they looked nothing like anyone had slept on.The atmosphere in this place is so sad and lonely that when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder, I was glad to hear him say, "Percy, let's go." Most of the other huts were packed with cadets. Cabin No. 5 was bright red, and the painters in that house were such a mess, it was like spilling paint straight out of a bucket.There were rows of barbed wire on the roof, and a stuffed boar's head hung on the porch, its eyes seemed to follow me.I looked inside and saw a group of rebellious-looking children, both male and female.The ear-piercing rock and roll sounds, they are wrestling and arguing.The loudest was a girl, who looked about thirteen or fourteen, and she was wearing a terribly oversized Camp Half-Blood T-shirt under a camouflage jacket.She gave me a wicked sneer that reminded me of Nancy Popeye, except the girl was taller and rougher looking, and she had long, straight brown hair, not red. I walked on, carefully avoiding Chiron's hooves. "We saw no other centaurs." I observed this. "Not really," Chiron said sadly. "Our relatives are usually rough. You may meet them in the wild or at important sports events, but you will never see them here." "You said your name was Chiron, you really are..." He smiled down at me, "The Chiron in the story? Is it the horse trainer of Hercules or some other legendary Chiron? Yes, Percy, I am." "But aren't you already dead?" Chiron paused, as if the question confused him. "Honestly, I don't know what should happen to me, but the truth is, I won't die. Eternals ago, the gods agreed to grant me my wish, so that I can continue my favorite job. As long as human beings need me, I can always be Hero's teacher. Because of this wish, I have gained a lot... but I have also given up a lot. However, since I am still here, I feel that I am still needed." Think about what it's like to be a teacher for three thousand years. This will definitely not be included in the top ten of my wish list. "Don't you ever get bored?" "Never," he said. "Once in a while I was very discouraged, but never bothered." "Why are you discouraged?" Chiron didn't seem to want to hear about it at all. "Oh, look," he said, "Annabeth is waiting for us." The blond girl I met in the main house was reading a book, just in front of the last cottage number eleven on the left. When we walked up to her, she gave me a critical look, like she was still wondering how much I drool. I wanted to see what book she was reading but couldn't read the title, I think it was dyslexia.I later found out that the title was not in English at all, it looked like Greek letters, yes, Greek.There are pictures of temples, statues, and various columns, much like what would appear in an architecture book. Chiron said: "Annabeth, I have an elite archery class this afternoon, can you take Percy?" "Okay, teacher." "This is Cabin Eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing to the porch. "Treat this place as your own home." Of all the cabins, Number Eleven resembled the normal old summer camp cabin the most, and I emphasize the word "old" because of the scuffed door sills and chipped brown paint.Above the porch is a doctor's symbol: two snakes wrapped around a winged pole.What is this called...?By the way, the double snake staff. The room was packed with people, both boys and girls, and there seemed to be more people than there were beds, because sleeping bags were strewn all over the floor in what looked like a temporary Red Cross gymnasium for refugees. Chiron didn't come in, the door was too short for him, but the students stood up and bowed respectfully when they saw him. Chiron said, "Good luck, Percy, then, and see you at dinner." He ran quickly towards the archery range. I stood on the porch looking at the kids in the house, and they stopped bowing, and everyone was staring at me, looking at me.I know this convention well, I've experienced it in enough schools. "Hey," Annabeth urged me, "come in." Naturally I stumbled through the door, making myself look like a total fool.There was a chuckle among the students, but no one spoke. Annabeth announced: "This is Percy Jackson, just arrived to report on the eleventh." "Is he certain, or unsure?" someone asked. Everyone started chattering. A man a little older than the others stepped forward and said, "Look, fellow students, that's why we're here. Percy, you're welcome, your seat is right there on the floor." The guy was about nineteen years old and looked really cool.He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy-brown hair and a friendly smile. He wears an orange wide-stripe vest, cropped trousers, and strappy Roman-style sandals.There was only one unsettling aspect of his appearance, a thick white scar running from under his right eye to his chin, as though it had been slashed by an old dagger. "This is Luke," Annabeth said, her voice sounding a little weird, and I glanced at her.I swear she blushed, she caught me looking at her, and immediately responded with a serious and grim expression. "He's your instructor now." "Now?" I asked. "You are not sure yet." Luke patiently explained: "They don't know which cabin to put you in, so let you come here first. Cabin 11 is a place for us freshmen or visitors .Our patron saint is Hermes, the god of travel." Looking at the little piece of floor they assigned me, I had nothing to put there to indicate my bed.I have no luggage, clothes, or sleeping bag, but the horn of this Minotaur.At first I wanted to put the horn down, but I immediately remembered that Hermes is also the god of stealing. I looked around at the faces of the students, some looking sullen and suspicious, some smirking, and others looking at me as if they were waiting for an opportunity to get money out of my pocket. "How long will I be here?" I asked. "Good question," Luke said. "Stay until you're identified." "How long will this take?" All the students roared with laughter. "Come on," Annabeth said to me, "I'll take you to the volleyball court." "I just saw it." "Let's go." She dragged me out by the wrist, and I heard Cabin Eleven laughing behind me. When we had gone a few meters, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to play nice." "what?" She rolled her eyes and muttered to herself, "I can't believe I thought you were the one." "What's wrong with you?" I started to get angry, "I just know I killed some bull man..." "Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "Do you know how many kids in this camp want the same opportunities as you?" "Is there any chance of being killed?" "A chance to fight the Minotaur! Otherwise why do you think we have to be trained?" I shake my head. "Listen, if the thing I defeated is really the Minotaur, the monster in the story..." "it's him." "Then there is only one monster." "yes." "If that's the case, he would have died a long time ago, wouldn't he have died millions of years ago? Theseus killed him in the maze, so..." "Percy, the Minotaur will not be. They can be killed, but they will not die." "Oh, thank you, you made it very clear." "They're not like you or me, they have no soul. If you're lucky, you can get rid of them for a while, maybe as long as your whole life. But they are primordial forces, Chiron called them 'primordials' , because in the end they will be born again." I thought of Mr. Dawes. "You mean, if I kill someone with one sword..." "You're talking about Fu... um, your math teacher? Yes, she's still out there somewhere, and you're just making her very, very, very angry." "How do you know about Mr. Dawes?" "You talk in your sleep." "Did you almost call her... Furies? They're Hades' torturers, right?" Annabeth looked nervously at the ground, as if the ground would split open and swallow her up. "You shouldn't call her by her first name, not even here. Whenever she needs to be mentioned, we call them the Goddesses of Mercy." "Then what's the point of saying there won't be thunder?" I sound like I'm complaining to myself, but I don't really care about it. "Forget about that, why do I have to stay in Cabin No. 11? Why are everyone crowded together? There are obviously a lot of empty beds there." I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "Percy, it's not just a matter of choosing a hut. It also depends on who your parents are. It should be... one of your parents." She stared at me, waiting for me to figure it out for myself. "My mom's Sally Jackson," I said. "She works in the candy store in Grand Central Station, I should say she used to work there." "Percy, I'm sorry about your mother, but I don't mean her, but another one, your father." "He's dead and I don't know anything about him." Annabeth sighed, looking like she'd have to get this out of the way without the other kids around. "Your father is not dead, Percy." "What did you say? Do you know him?" "Of course I don't." "Then how can you say..." "Because I know who you are, if you weren't part of us, you wouldn't be here." "You don't know anything about me." "Really?" she said, raising one eyebrow. "I bet you went from school to school and got expelled from a lot of schools." "How could you..." "You've been diagnosed with dyslexia and possibly ADHD." I really want to swallow my embarrassment. "What does it matter?" "Bringing these things together is a telltale sign. When you read, the letters on the page flutter, don't you? That's because your head is tied up in ancient Greek. As for your ADHD, you are very active, you can't sit well in the classroom, that is actually your instinctive response to combat power, which keeps you alive in real combat. Your concentration is because you know too much, not Because so little is known. Also, your sensory abilities are better than normal people. Of course, many teachers will treat you with drugs, but most of them are monsters and don't want you to know who they are." "It sounds like you...have experienced the same thing?" "Most of the children here have experienced it. If you are different from us, if you only eat a little food and drink like you, it is impossible to survive the hands of the Minotaur." "God food and drink?" "It's the food and drink that makes you feel better. That god food is enough to kill an average child, it'll turn an average human's blood to fire and bones to dust and die. So face it, you A man of mixed race." Mestizo. I was entangled with many questions, but I didn't know where to ask them. A hoarse voice yelled, "Wow! New here!" I looked around and there was a thick girl walking slowly towards us from the ugly red cabin, followed by three girls, all as thick, ugly, and mean looking as she was, all four wearing camouflage jackets. "Cressa," sighed Annabeth, "why don't you polish your gun or do something?" "Of course, my dear princess," said the stout girl, "so I can run that spear through you on Friday night." "Erre es korakas!" said Annabeth.As far as I know, it's Greek for "Go to Hell!" but I feel like it's more of a curse than the literal meaning. "Don't even think about it!" "We'll destroy you all," Cressa said, though her eyelids twitched, maybe she wasn't sure she could do it.She turned to me and said, "Who is this short winter melon?" "Percy Jackson," said Annabeth, "this is Clarissa, the daughter of Ares." I blinked in surprise, "Is that... God of War?" Cressa sneered contemptuously and said, "Is there a problem?" "No." I regained my composure. "No wonder it smells bad." Cressa started snarling: "We're having an initiation ceremony, Pissy." "It's Percy." "Everything is the same! Come on, I'll take you there." "Clarissa..." Annabeth wanted to say something. "Wait outside, smart girl." Annabeth looked distressed, but she really stayed out and I didn't really need her help.I'm new here and have to make my own way. I handed the Minotaur's horn to Annabeth, and I was ready to ask everyone, but before I knew what was going on, Cressa grabbed me by the neck and dragged me into the cinderblock house.I knew right away that this was a bathroom. I punched and kicked, and although I had a lot of fighting experience before, this burly Cressa with hands of steel dragged me straight into the girls' bathroom.The bathroom has a row of toilets on one side and a row of showers on the other, and it smells like any other public bathroom.As Cressa tugged at my hair, I managed to think: If the gods belonged to this place, they should be able to afford nicer bathrooms. Cressa's friends are all big and small, and I tried to find the strength to fight the Minotaur, but that strength didn't exist. "It's as if he's the stuff of the 'Three Great Gods'." Cressa said as she pushed me towards a toilet. "Yes, the Minotaur probably fell down laughing at that time. He looked so stupid." Her friend is giggling. Annabeth stood in the corner, watching the scene through her fingers. Cressa pushed me down on my knees and shoved my head into the toilet.There was a strong stench of rusted pipes, plus, um, stuff that went back down the toilet.I pulled my head up desperately, looked at the dirty water and thought: I don't want to go in, don't. This is, something happened, I felt a strong pull in my body, and I heard the booming sound of the toilet bowl, and even the water pipes were vibrating.Cressa's grip on my hair loosened.A jet of water shoots out of the toilet, arcing over my head, and the next thing I know I'm slumped on the bathroom floor tiles, with Kressa screaming behind me. I turned to look when the water gushed out of the toilet again.The water hit Cressa directly in the face with such force that she fell to the ground, and the jet of water continued to hit her like a fire hose, pushing her back into the shower. She struggled, panting, and her friend started running towards her.At this time, the other toilets also erupted, and six more water jets repelled them.Even the shower started to move, and all the equipment sprayed water together, spraying these camouflage girls out of the bathroom.The jet of water made their bodies spin, much like garbage being washed away. As they were all rushed out the door, I felt the power of the physical force ebb away and the water shut off as fast as it started. The entire bathroom was flooded, and Annabeth couldn't hide, dripping wet, but she didn't get sprayed out the door.She stood there with her eyes wide open, waiting for me in surprise. I looked down, and it turned out that I was sitting in the only dry place in the whole bathroom, surrounded by a circle of dry floor, not a drop of water on my clothes, not at all. I stood up, my feet were shaking. Annabeth said, "How do you..." "I have no idea." We walked towards the door.Outside the door, Cressa and her friends were lying flat in the mud, surrounded by a group of students, all stunned.Cressa's hair fell over her face, her camouflage jacket was soaked, and she reeked of shit.She gave me a hard look with hatred in her eyes. "You are dead, newcomer, I will kill you completely." Maybe I should just let it go, but instead I say, "Cressa, do you still want some toilet water to rinse your mouth? If not, just keep your mouth shut." Her friend held her down and dragged her back to Cabin No. 5, while other practitioners left the place she had dragged. Annabeth stares at me wide-eyed, and I can't tell if she thinks I'm a bit of a nuisance, or if she's mad at me for getting her wet. "How?" I asked, "What are you thinking?" "I'm online," she said. "I want you to join my team for Capture the Flag."