First 5 commenters on Chapter Three:
SophiaGrace1225
Rasnak
wise_girl_2004
ANonBinaryWeeb
@AnnaVJackson

Percy's POV

"Please don't tell anyone about the panic attack," I said as Annabeth drove us back to camp. She refused to let me drive after the said panic attack, saying I still needed more time to recover from it.

"I won't tell anyone anything that you don't want me to," she promised. Then she glanced at me as she said, "Though you might want to consider at least telling Chiron."

I snorted. "No way. He'd take it straight to the gods."

Annabeth sighed. "Okay, I won't tell Chiron."

"Besides, I don't usually get panic attacks often, or that bad. This time it was also the stress that was building up."

"Are you going to tell anyone you're a girl?"

"Maybe Grover, Thalia, Clarisse, and Nico or something. Maybe I'll track down that sexist kid I illegally sold candy to in sixth grade just to see his reaction when he sees his candy-dealer was a girl the whole time."

"Clarisse?" Annabeth asked. "You two still don't really get along that well."

I kind of half-shrugged. "It's mostly teasing, training, and fighting. I stay away from touchy subjects and she does the same. We listen to each other when we need someone to talk to, and we know each other really well at this point. We never tell each others' secrets. That's why you didn't already know about my panic attacks or nightmares. She keeps the secret. Besides, she values honor and would never go tell people someone's secret. Aside from that, she probably already suspects it, so..."

"Why would she already suspect it?"

I looked away from Annabeth. "We don't tell each others' secrets."

She must've sensed from my tone (or my fatal flaw) that she wasn't going to get more information from me, and so she changed the subject.

"Yoh illegally sold candy in sixth grade?"

"Yup. I'm actually quite the salesperson, and money math is just about the only type of math that I can really do."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. Gabe gambled and took my money, and I could make a lot of it. We both had a way of sniffing out money. I learned from him... As much as I hate having something in common with him, I kind of had to embrace it considering it's one of the only things I'm good at."

"You're good at lots of things, Percy."

I hummed in half hearted agreement, but other than that I remained silent.

"Really, you are. You're a good fighter, good at talking to people, you're an amazing friend and girlfriend, you're good at helping people, you're good at swimming—"

"Logically, I know that," I interrupted.  "I'm just no good at believing it."

Annabeth looked like she wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. I put a hand on hers.

"Not everything can be fixed," I said softly. "That goes for people too. Why haven't you just given up on this yet?" I guestured at myself. "I'm a mess. I wouldn't blame you, you know."

"You know I can't just stop trying," she said, and I know she was referring both to love and her fatal flaw. I nodded.

"Logically, I do," I muttered, staring out the window at nothing.

Annabeth held one of my hands, and the rest of the trip was made in silence.

~•~

"Listen to me, Percy!"

"What?" I snapped, glaring at Posiedon. We'd been talking for five minutes and I was already at my wit's end.

"I have respected your privacy and your wishes thus far and I have not watched you when you don't want me to. But that's going to change if you don't let anyone help you."

"I don't want your f*cking help!" I shouted, finally snapping. "You can't give me quests, repeatedly send me to my death, endanger my friends, take advantage of my fatal flaw, and then expect me to just believe and accept that you suddenly care about me. If you only want me to feel better so that I'll be ready to save you next time you're in danger, then you can shove your 'help' right up your a$$. Stay away from me. I have friends that can help me. I don't need my poor excuse for a father to help me get back on my feet."

Poseidon was shocked to silence. I decided to take that as permission to leave and stormed right out of there.

When I got outside, I noticed some campers (none of the newer ones, thank goodness) were staring, presumably having heard all of it. I ignored them, going straight to my cabin.

I climbed up to the top bunk and flopped onto it.

A couple minutes passed before my door opened, then closed.

"What's up?" Clarisse said.

"Poseidon's being a selfish moron," I replied. It was silent for a moment. I sighed. "You know, sometimes after the conversations I have with the gods, I can think Luke was right about them. They never really had my loyalty anyway, I never really did any of this for them."

"What changes your mind?"

I stared at the ceiling. "Nothing. But I realize that Annabeth, my friends, you, my mom—you would never change your minds about the gods. Or even if you did, you probably wouldn't actually switch sides. And I can't just abandon you all. You guys are the ones I did all of this for."

"I don't particularly agree with the gods most of the time, either," Clarisse admitted. "I only stay with them because all of these campers? The new ones who look up to us, the old ones who fought alongside me, well... When I fight with someone on the battlefield, or train for war with the other campers, I can't just break the bond that's created."

I sighed. "The gods are just using our fatal flaws and weaknesses to keep us on their side right now. The worst part is that it's working."

We were silent for a while.

"Hey Clarisse?"

"Yeah?"

I took a breath. Here goes nothing. "I'm a girl. Like, a cisgendered girl."

"Oh. Okay," she said, unsurprised, confirming that she did already at least suspect it. "I guessed. But why did you always say you're a guy?"

"My first stepdad—ya know, the one we turned into stone with Medusa's head?—was an abusive jerk to me and my mom."

Clarisse nodded in understanding. "You going to tell anyone you're a girl?"

"I told Annabeth on our date. I might tell some other people too. Maybe I'll tell everyone eventually. Not yet."

"How did Annabeth handle it?"

"She was cool with it. She handled my panic attack pretty well too, but she wanted me to tell Chiron."

"Makes sense," Clarisse said. "In case it becomes an issue with your training. But he'd probably take it straight to the gods."

"That's what I told her. So she agreed not to tell anyone."

"That's good."

I decided that that's enough on that topic.  "Your birthday is coming up soon, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just thinking about what I should get you," I said with a grin.

"You don't  have to get me anything," she said.  I opened my mouth to protest, but didn't get to say anything before Clarisse continued: "But I wouldn't argue against a new spear..."

I laughed.  "I'll keep that in mind," I told her.

We chatted for a while about random, less serious things until it was time for dinner.

A/N I wish this were longer, but I didn't want to force it into being longer if I couldn't make it work. The ending might be a bit weird but I think it would probably have been even weirder if I tried to force it into being longer or changed it around too much.
(July 13th, 2020 ((technically)) )