Chapter Two
Flash Floods and Birth

​Ellis felt like he was thrown into another world. His dad was Apollo. But nothing ever suggested that could happen when we learned Greek mythology last year, Ellis thought. How did this happen to me? That was one of his các câu hỏi swirling in his mind.
​Soon, Ellis saw himself thrashing about in the waters, heading to Long Island. He was on the shoreline bởi then, coughing in the murky greenish water. There was a pine cây ahead. He crawled over to the cây and sat there, dripping and exhausted.
​Two people had come out of nowhere and helped him up. Ellis was dizzy and could only make out a blurry sight of them. They seemed to be wearing bright trái cam, màu da cam shirts. Ellis had dyslexia, so it was hard to decipher what it said. It seemed to say:
AMPC H-LABFOOLD
​“Are bạn okay?” One of the two đã đưa ý kiến that, but Ellis’s temporarily blurry sight made him unable to know who đã đưa ý kiến what.
​The other one asked, “Who are you?”
​“Ellis,” he replied, so raspy it was almost incoherent. He had only hazy memories of the past hour.
​“Hi, I’m Annabeth.”
​The other one didn’t greet, but the one named Annabeth hit the boy in the elbow and he replied to Ellis.
​“Okay, okay! I’m Percy.”
​Ellis spit something out of his mouth. It was the birth certificate, somehow still in one piece. The one named Percy got it and read it.
​Percy showed it to Annabeth, and her eyes widened.
​“Welcome to the club,” she said.
​“Huh?” Ellis was dumbfounded.
​“Camp Half-Blood,” Percy said. “Do bạn have dyslexia?”
​Ellis nodded.
​“That makes sense. Can bạn play an instrument? Apollo’s the god of music.” Annabeth turned to Percy for extra truth.
​“How am I supposed to know?”
​Ellis played something suddenly. It was a golden lyre, what Apollo is depicted playing.
​“Yup, you’re the son of Apollo.”
​The two kids from Camp Half-Blood helped Ellis up and truthfully told him what Camp Half-Blood was. They didn’t want to get on Apollo’s bad side, since he was also the god of truth, the reason why Ellis’s drawings always come true.
​“… It’s awesome,” Percy said.
​“It is,” Annabeth đã đưa ý kiến for reassurance.
​“How did bạn get here? Your certificate says that bạn were born in Connecticut. That’s TC, right? I have dyslexia, too.”
​“I thought it was CT,” Ellis replied.
​“Who cares about the abbreviation of Connecticut? We’re about to vượt qua, cross the property line,” Annabeth said. “Oh, bởi the way, that pine cây bạn saw was Thalia’s pine, basically. Everyone knows the story. Do you?”
​“We did Greek mythology in class last year. Although now that I see this, I don’t think it’s a myth anymore. They should call it truth-ology.” Ellis gasped for breath after speed-talking.
​Percy and Annabeth cracked up as they crossed the property line.
​“The only an toàn, két an toàn haven for demigods,” Annabeth đã đưa ý kiến as they approached.
​“Huh?”
​“Demigods is another way to say half-blood, dummy.”
​“Percy, he’s new! Don’t call him a dummy. Call me one.”
​“I already called bạn a dummy and the opposite,” Percy said.
​“Whoa,” Ellis gaped at Camp Half-Blood.