Percy looked at Sylvia, who was smirking after an exceptionally embarrassing baby story his mom told her, Fawkes–that was her name, right?–the phoenix on her shoulder. He groaned internally. She was so going to use that as blackmail.

Percy thought that maybe, just maybe, the annoying daughter of Apollo would be too nervous to talk about anything, but she had an entire eight-hour conversation with his mom.

The drive was eight hours long.

"We're here," his mom announced suddenly, bringing Percy out of his thoughts.

"Welcome to Westover Hall, the school for vampires," Sylvia muttered after taking a single look at the outside building. It looked like an evil knight's castle. It was all black stone, with towers and slit windows and a big set of stone double doors. It stood on a snowy cliff overlooking this big frosty forest on one side and the gray churning ocean on the other side–y'know, the typical place for everything to go wrong.

Has she never been to a military school before? Percy wondered. Most of them look like this.

"Well, I'll hopefully see you later, Sally," Sylvia said, starting to get out of the car.

"Wait!" his mom said, grabbing a pen and a pad of paper out of her pocket and scribbling something on a piece of paper before handing it to Sylvia.

Gods know why she keeps those in her pocket, Percy thought.

"My number," Sally explained.

"Oh. Um...thank you." The daughter of Apollo smiled.

"No problem, honey," Sally said as everyone else filed out of the blue vehicle. "Keep in touch once in a while."

How come Mom likes her? Percy thought grumpily. I don't. For good reason, too. You'd think a mom would be overprotective over her son if she met his basically-enemy.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" Sally asked, her eyes concerned.

"No thanks, Mom," Percy said. "I don't know how long it'll take. We'll be okay."

Percy was perfectly aware that those were definitely famous last words.

"But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy."

Percy mentally sighed. It was bad enough he had to depend on his mom to drive him to his battles.

"It's okay, Mrs. Jackson." Annabeth smiled reassuringly. Her blonde hair was tucked into a ski cap and her gray eyes were the same colour at the ocean around them. Percy saw Sylvia glance at her, and noticed her cheeks were red. She must've been cold or something. Good. "We'll keep him out of trouble."

"All right, dears," his mom said. "Do you have everything you need?"

"Yes, Mrs. Jackson," Thalia said.

"Thanks for the ride," Sylvia added. The way she was acting around his mom confused Percy. He didn't know she was capable of being polite.

"Extra sweaters? Don't lose my phone number, please."

"Mom–"

"Your ambrosia and nectar? And a drachma in case you need to message the camp?"

"Mom, seriously! We'll be fine. Come on, guys." Sylvia glared reproachfully at Percy at that.

She–his mom, not Sylvia–looked a little hurt, and Percy was sorry about that, but he was ready to be in the building. If his mom told one more story about how cute he looked in the bathtub when he was three, he was going to burrow into the snow and freeze himself to death. Or annoy Sylvia. Either option would get the same results.

We followed Sylvia in the direction of the vampire house. The wind blew straight through Percy's coat like ice daggers.

Once Percy's mother's car was out of sight, Thalia said, "Your mom is so cool, Percy."

Sylvia nodded. "Too bad you didn't inherit that specific trait. Or any of her traits. Especially the good looks."

"Oh, shut up." Percy glared at her. "But, yeah, she's pretty okay. What about your moms?"

As soon as Percy said it, he wished he hadn't. They were both great at giving evil looks--Sylvia out of experience, and Thalia because of the punk clothes she always wears: a ripped-up army jacket, black leather pants and chain jewelry, black eyeliner and those intense blue eyes.

"How about you stop talking--" Sylvia started as Thalia interrupted with, "If that was any of your business, Percy--"

"We'd better get inside," Annabeth said quickly. "Grover will be waiting."

Thalia looked at the castle and shivered. "You're right. I wonder what he found here that made him send the distress call."

Percy stared up at the dark towers of Westover Hall. "Nothing good," he guessed.

* * *

Sylvia looked at Fawkes and wondered if maybe she should get in her pocket. Her fiery mix of red feathers with subtle touches of yellow and orange on a few were glowing as if she would spontaneously combust any second, which probably wouldn't make their entrance very discreet.

I can shut off the glowing part, if you'd like, Fawkes offered.

Yes, please.

She stopped glowing, then shrunk and hopped into Sylvia's hoodie pocket.

You own a lot of knives, she remarked.

Couldn't argue with that.

The oak doors of the evil-looking military school groaned open, and the four of them stepped into the entry hall in a swirl of snow.

"Whoa," Percy said, and Sylvia couldn't help but agree (not that she'd ever tell him that).

The place was huge. The walls were lined with battle flags and weapon displays: antique rifles, battle axes, and a bunch of other stuff. Sylvia knew Westover was a military school and all, but the decorations seemed a little overkill.

Literally.

Sylvia's hand went to her pocket in her light gray sweatpants, where her shrunk bow and arrows currently were. She could already sense something was wrong in this place. Something dangerous. Percy's hand was straying close to his own pocket, where his pen-sword, Riptide was, and Thalia was rubbing her silver bracelet, one of her magic items. She knew they were all thinking the same thing. A fight was coming.

Annabeth started to say, "I wonder where--"

The doors slammed shut behind them, making Sylvia jump slightly and Percy snicker at her.

It's not Maman slamming the door, she had to remind herself. She's not going to tell me how useless I am again. It's just the wind. Or a monster.

"Oo-kay," Percy mumbled. "Guess we'll stay a while."

Music was playing from the other end of the hall. Dance music.

They stashed their overnight bags behind a pillar and started down the hall. They hadn't gone very far when Sylvia heard footsteps on the stone floor, and a man and woman marched out of the shadows to intercept them.

They both had short gray hair and black military-style uniforms with red trim. The woman--her nametag said Mrs. Gottschalk, or possibly Ms. Gtothcslak, so Sylvia was pretty sure she was a woman, or someone with she/her pronouns, at least--had a wispy mustache, and the guy--Dr. Thorn, his nametag said--was clean-shaven. They both walked stiffly, like they had broomsticks taped to their spines.

"Well?" Mrs. Gottschalk demanded. "What are you doing here?"

Sylvia opened her mouth to speak when Percy said, "Um..."

She tried not to facepalm. Great start to a lie.

"Ma'am, we--" she started.

"Ha!" the man snapped, which made both Percy and Sylvia jump. "Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be eee-jected!"

He had a French accent. Sylvia could easily recognize those. He was tall, with a hawkish face. His nostrils flared when he spoke, which made it really hard not to stare at his nose, and his eyes were heterochromatic--one was brown, and one was blue. 

Thalia stepped forward, snapped her fingers, and said "Oh, but we're not visitors, sir. You remember: I'm Thalia. And this is Annabeth, Sylvia, and Percy. We're in eighth grade."

Nothing happened. Sylvia guessed the school was protected against Mist, somehow.

She stepped beside Thalia. "Nous sommes désolés, Dr. Thorn. Nous ne voulions pas avoir l'air de nous faufiler. Vous voyez, nous avions des devoirs à faire, et un morceau s'est envolé par la fenêtre. Nous sommes juste sortis pour le récupérer." (I used Google Translate for that, so it might not be 100% correct. Translation [roughly]: We're very sorry, Dr. Thorn. We didn't mean to seem like we were sneaking in. You see, we had homework to do, and one piece flew out of the window. We just went outside to retrieve it.)

As she spoke, a weird thing happened. The music seemed to get louder, and closer. It was some song about control, maybe the one by Halsey.

Both teachers' eyes glazed over. Mrs. Gottschalk frowned at them. "Annabeth, Thalia, Percy, Sylvia. Did you finish that homework?"

"Oui, Madame. I mean, yes, Mrs. Gottschalk," Sylvia corrected herself. "It was a finished piece of homework that blew out the window. It's in my pocket now."

"Well, get in the gymnasium, then," she snapped.

Before they could answer, Sylvia heard more footsteps, and Grover ran up, breathless. "You made it! You--"

He stopped short when he saw the teachers. "Oh, Mrs. Gottschalk. Dr. Thorn! I, uh--"

"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" said the man, his tone making it clear that he hated Grover. "What do you mean, they made it? These stuents live here."

"He's just glad we finished out homework in time to make it to the dance, sir," Sylvia informed him. "And we did!"

"Oh." His eyes looked dazed again. Then he shook his head and they cleared. "Then get in the gymnasium!"

They didn't wait to be told twice. They left with a lot of "Yes, ma'ams" and "Yes, sirs" and a couple of salutes, because, according to Percy, "It seemed like the thing to do."

Grover hustled them down the hall in the direction of the music, which was at a normal volume again.

That was certainly interesting, Fawkes remarked dryly, and Grover jumped. "Wh-who was that?"

Right. Satyrs could talk to animals.

"Fawkes, my phoenix," Sylvia said casually, as if she was talking about a pen she owned and not a mythical creature.

"Where?" he asked.

In her pocket. I can shrink myself and other things, Fawkes said with a hint of pride in her voice.

"Oh."

"What was that thing you did with your fingers?" Percy asked Thalia in a low voice. "Whatever it was, it didn't seem to work properly. And, Sylvia--"

Sylvia interrupted him. "She tried to manipulate the Mist. Some demigods have the power to do that. The monster here must've protected the school against it somehow."

"Has Chiron not shown you how to use the Mist yet?" Thalia asked.

"He showed me," Sylvia remarked. "Same time as Annabeth. Neither of us were able to, though."

Grover hurried them to a door that had GYM written on the glass. 

"That was close!" Grover said. "Thank the gods you got here!"

Annabeth and Thalia hugged Grover. Percy got a high five. Sylvia just moved slightly away, a sign she didn't want a hug or high five. She didn't like physical affection from people she wasn't very close to, which was awkward whenever she met one of those "hug at first sight" people.

Grover was wearing a red cap on his curly brown hair to hide his goat horns, and baggy jeans and sneakers to hide his furry legs and hooves. He was wearing a black T-shirt that took Sylvia a few seconds to read. It said Westover Hall: Grunt. Must've been his rank. Grover was an okay person/satyr. Sylvia had gone on a quest with Clarisse the most recent summer to retrieve the Golden Fleece, which they would've gotten by themselves if Percy didn't interfere. She ended up going to Circe's island with Percy and Annabeth--Annabeth looked insanely pretty then, and Percy looked cute, something foreign to him, since he was a guinea pig, listening to the Siren Song--she, unlike Annabeth, had fully disarmed herself, so she didn't escape like Annabeth did, and then they got the Fleece and saved Grover. 

The only thing was, at the end of the quest, there was only enough money to send one person back on a plane and of course Percy chose Clarisse. Sylvia, her newly discovered fatal flaw being stubbornness, didn't let Clarisse give her the money and make her fly back instead, of course, but she knew if she was chosen to go instead of her sister, Clarisse wouldn't have let her give her the money, and she would've been recognized as a hero of the camp.

One of many of the reasons she disliked Percy Jackson.

"So, what's the emergency?" Percy asked.

Grover took a deep breath. "I found two half-bloods."

"Two? Thalia asked, amazed. "Here?"

Grover nodded.

"Chiron said that at the meeting," Sylvia reminded them. "Were you guys not listening?"

Percy and Thalia both looked away, although Percy muttered something about ADHD.

"I have ADHD too, and I still tried to listen." Sylvia sighed.

She was on a mini-quest with two idiots and one extremely pretty, smart girl. Great.

What was that music thing? It happened again 0-0. Guess you gotta find out.

Anyways, that happened.

QOTD: Favourite Percy Jackson ship?

A: Solangeloooo

We need a ship name for Via and Percy. Any ideas? Like Percia, Sylcy, La Rueson, etc.

Cya later

-Eevee