Rick Riordan

“The Cyclops was about to roll the stone back into place, when from somewhere outside Annabeth shouted, "Hello, ugly!"Polyphemus stiffened. "Who said that?""Nobody!" Annabeth yelled.That got exactl;y the reaction she'd been hoping for. The monster's face turned red with rage."Nobody!" Polyphemus yelled back. "I remember you!""You're too stupid to remember anybody," Annabeth taunted. "Much less Nobody."I hoped to the gods she was already moving when she said that, because Polyphemus bellowed furiously, grabbed the nearest boulder (which happened to be his front door) and threw it toward the sound of Annabeth's voice. I heard the rock smash into a thousand fragments.To a terrible moment, there was silence. Then Annabeth shouted, "You haven't learned to throw any better, either!"Polyphemus howled. "Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!""You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf," she taunted. "Come find me!"Polyphemus barreled down the hill toward her voice.Now, the "Nobody" thing would have confused anybody, but Annabeth had explained to me that it was the name Odysseus had used to trick Polyphemus centuries ago, right before he poked the Cyclops's eye out with a large hot stick. Annabeth had figured Polyphemus would still have a grudge about that name, and she was right. In his frenzy to find his old enemy, he forgot about resealing the cave entrance. Apparently, he did even stop to consider that Annabeth's voice was female, whereas the first Nobody had been male. On the other hand, he'd wanted to marry Grover, so he couldn't have been all that bright about the whole male/female thing.I just hoped Annabeth could stay alive and keep distracting him long enough for me to find Grover and Clarisse.”

“Like some helpful person (hi, Mom) has tried to "'clean'" it, and suddenly you can't find anything?”

“The word Styx got her [Mrs. O'Leary, the hellhound] excited. She probably thought I meant sticks. She jumped a few times, chased her tail just to teach it who was boss, and then calmed down enough for me to push Nico onto her back.”

“I don't recommend shadow travel if you're scared of:a) The darkb) Cold shivers up your spinec) Strange noisesd) Going so fast you feel like your face is peeling offIn other words, I thought it was awesome.”

“Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you rqan the world?''Um... no. Me running the world would be kind of a nightmare.”

“Do you have a favorite constalation, Percy?'I was still kind of wondering about the little green snakes he'd shoved into his jogging shorts, but i said. 'Uh, I like Hercules.''Why?''Well... because he had rotten luck. Even worse than mine. It makes me feel better."The jogger chuckled. 'Not because he was strong and famouse and all that?''No.”

“Zeus will destroy you!' she promised. 'Hades will have your soul!''Braccas meas vescimini!' I yelledI wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant 'Eat my pants!”

“Everybody was patting Nico on the back, complimenting him on his fighting. Even the Ares kids thought he was pretty cool. Hey, show up with an army of undead warriors to save the day, and suddenly you're everybody's best friend.”

“Whathat!" Tyson gasped."Those are the stables for the pegasi," I replied, "You know, winged horses?""Whasthat!""Um... those are the toilets.”

“They send a person who can never stay," she whispered. "Who can never accept my offer of companionship for more than a little while. They send me a hero I can't help ... just the sort of person I can't help falling in love with."...As I sailed into the lake I realized the Fates really were cruel. They sent Calypso someone she couldn't help but love. But it worked both ways. For the rest of my life I would be thinking about her. She would always be my biggest what if.”

“Erre es korakas, Blinky!" Dionysus cursed. "I will have your soul!”

“How did you die?""We er....drowned in a bathtub.""All three of you?""It was a big bathtub.”

“I’ve met plenty of embarrassing parents, but Kronos, the evil Titan Lord who wanted to destroy Western Civilization? Not the kind of dad you invited toschool for Career Day.”

“The gods need heroes. They always have.”

“Powdered donuts," Tyson said earnestly. "I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness." He headed outside and started calling, "Here, donuts!”

“Right," she said, "We're going to the Land of the Dead and I shouldn't think negative.”

“I remembered the last time Annabeth and I had parted ways, when she'd given me a kiss for luck in Mount St. Helens. This time, all I got was the hat.”

“Ever come home and found your room messed up? Like some helpful person (hi, Mom) has tried to "clean" it, and suddenly you can't find anything? And even if nothing is missing, you get that creepy feeling like somebody's been looking through your private stuff and dusting everything with lemon furniture polish?”

“A demigod!" one snarled."Eat it!" yelled another.But that's as far as they got before I slashed a wide arc with Riptide and vaporized the entire front row of monsters."Back off!" I yelled at the rest, trying to sound fierce. Behind them stood their instructor--a six-foot tall telekhine with Doberman fangs snarling at me. I did my best to stare him down."New lesson, class," I announced. "Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is completely normal, and will happen to you right now if you don't BACK OFF!"To my surprise, it worked. The monsters backed off, but there was at least twenty of them. My fear factor wasn't going to last that long.I jumped out of the cart, yelled, "CLASS DISMISSED!" and ran for the exit.”

“Just tell me, Percy, do you still have the birthday gift I gave you last summer?" I nodded and pulled out my camp necklace. It had a bead for every summer I'd been at Camp Half-Blood, but since last year I'd also kept a sand dollar on the cord. My father had given it to me for my fifteenth birthday. He'd told me I would know when to "spend it," but so far I hadn't figured out what he meant. All I knew that it didn't fit the vending machines in the school cafeteria.”

“I had nightmares about what Poseidon might turn me into if I were on the verge of death-plankton maybe."-Percy Jackson”

“I'm not usually an eavesdropper,but i dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.”

“Atlas smirked.”

“Monkey bar," Annabeth said. "I'm great at these." She leaped onto to the first rung and start swinging her way across. She was scared of tiny spiders, but not of plummeting to her death from a set of monkey bars. Go figure.”

“Your powers drain you too much,' [Percy] noted.[Nico] nodded sleepily. 'With great power...comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”

“Annabeth, thank goodness, would be staying in New York. She'd gotten permission from her parentsto attend a boarding school in the city so she could be close to Olympus and oversee the rebuildingefforts."And close to me?" I asked."Well, someone's got a big sense of his own importance." But she laced her fingers through mine. Iremembered what she'd told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought—justmaybe—we were off to a good start.”

“And when demigods use cell phones, the signals agitate every monster within a hundred miles. It's like sending up a flare: Here I am! Please rearrange my face!”

“Normally, as long as I'm telling him what to do, he wins in a fight.”

“Conquer or die.”

“Dan was thrilled that the second clue had been safely smuggled out of the church in his pants."So, really, I saved the day," he decided."Wait a minute," Amy said, "I climbed onto the roof in the middle of a thunderstorm.""Yeah, but the clue was in my pants.”

“My dear children!"Nellie whopped him upside the head with her backpack."Ow!" Uncle Alistair curled over, cupping his hand over his good eye."Nellie!" Amy said."Sorry," Nellie muttered. "I thought he was one of the bad guys.”

“I want a room decorated with bones!" Dan said. "Where'd they come from?""Cemeteries," Amy said. "Back in the 1700s, the cemeteries were getting overcrowded, so they decided to dig up tons of old bodies–all their bones–and move them into the Catacombs. The thing is...look at the dates. See when they started moving bones into the Catacombs?"Dan squinted at the screen. He didn't see what she was talking about. "Is it my birthday?”

“A Styrofoam egg carton caught his eye. He opened it and found a single silver orb with little blinking red lights. "This is cool, too!" He dropped it into his backpack."Dan, no!""What? They've got plenty of other stuff, and we need all the help we can get!""It could be dangerous.""I hope so.”

“Amy gritted her teeth. "King Louis XVI even put Franklin's picture on a chamber pot!"Jonah looked at his dad. "Do we have souvenir chamber pots?""No." His dad whipped out his phone. "I'll make the call.”

“Sadie got up and kissed Amos on the forehead. “Leave it to us, Uncle. I’ve got a plan.”“That,” I said, “sounds like very bad news.”

“Ma’at demands a leader.”“Yeah so I’ve heard.”

“Egyptians believe in the power of the sunrise. They believe each morning begins not just a new day, but a new world.”

“Julius told me how much you’d grown, but I couldn’t believe it. Carter, I bet you’re shaving—”“Mom.”“—and dating girls—”“Mom!” Have you ever noticed how parents can go from the most wonderful people in the world to totally embarrassing in three seconds?”

“What are you?” She demanded. “My dad? Osiris? Are you even alive?”Dad looked at Anubis. “What did I tell you about her? Fiercer than Ammit, I said.”“You didn’t need to tell me that.” Anubis’s face was grave. “I’ve learned to fear that sharp tongue.”Sadie looked outraged. “Excuse me?”

“I missed him so much I would sometimes turn to tell him something before I forgot he was gone. In spite of all that, and all the emotion boiling around inside me, all I could think of to say was: “You’re blue.”

“You are one freaking awesome baboon.”

“If anybody felt worse than I did, it was Amos. I had just enough magic to turn myself into a falcon and him into a hamster (hey, I was rushed!)”

“I can’t believe Sadie’s going to let me have the last word. Our experience together must’ve really taught her something. Ow, she just hit me. Never mind.”

“Desjardins was literally fuming. His tattered robes still smoked from battle. (Carter says I shouldn’t mention that his pink boxer shorts were showing, but they were!)”

“Set screamed something in Ancient Egyptian. I was fairly sure it wasn’t a compliment.“I will rend your limbs from their sockets!” he shouted. “I will—”“Die?” Carter suggested.”

“Back up shall we? When my brother, the crazy chicken warrior, turned into a falcon and went up the pyramid’s chimney with his new friend, the fruit bat, he left me playing nurse to two very wounded people—which I didn’t appreciate, and which I wasn’t particularly good at.”

“I was a fight to the death, and I felt great.”

“I heard Amos yell, “For Brooklyn!”It was an odd battle cry.”

“Most of Set’s forces were running towards our boat, screaming and throwing rocks (which tended to fall down and hit them, but no one says demons are bright).”

“A giant vulture with a girl hanging from its feet tends to attract attention.”