Oopsie... Missed Something

Recently, the Percy Jackson fan page on Facebook reached one million members. As a thank you, they premiered a deleted chapter from the Lightning Thief that Rick released. You can find it on the Facebook page.

Or, you could just keep reading!







A MESSAGE FROM RICK RIORDAN

In the original manuscript for The Lightning Thief,Percy is introduced to a camp tradition, where the newcomer has to kiss the boar at are cabin and gets thrown in the lake. The name of the chapter,which was never used was named "I KISS SOMETHING UGLY."

We ultimately decided that the chapter would read better if this detail were deleted, but i always liked the scene. Later, in The Last Olympian, I reused the idea of Percy getting thrown in the lake, but this time with Annabeth

Enjoy this scene that never was!

I KISS SOMETHING UGLY

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director Chiron says the next capture-the-flag is Friday. Cabin Five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I could care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."

Chiron murmured something.

"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now do your silly little welcome tradition. Go on."

Cabin Eleven started a chant, pounding on the table and doing a series of hand-gestures I didn't understand any better than the words:



Half-blood, half-blood, rak-a-sak-a-soo.

Gitcheegumee, ratatooie, whose child are you?

Throw him in, throw him in, welcome to the camp,

No one's a half-blood until they're damp!



Then the tempo changed and everyone in the pavilion drummed their fists on the tables:



Ohhhhhh ---

Percy kiss the boar! Percy kiss the boar!

Percy kiss the boar! Percy kiss the boar!



The bigger guys in Cabin Eleven grabbed me and lifted me over their heads. I struggled a little at first, but I realized there wasn't much point, so I let them carry me down to the cabins, the whole camp laughing and singing and jostling each other.

We went down to Clarisse's cabin, the one with the wild boar mounted above the doorway. Luke lifted me on his shoulders so I could reach it.

"Go ahead, Percy!" he yelled. "A big wet one on the snout!"

The thing was disgusting – moldy and smelly and ugly like you wouldn't believe. The snout was all peeling off and nasty.

"Percy kiss the boar! Percy kiss the boar!" everybody shouted.

Before I could think about it too much, I kissed the boar's nose.

A roar of approval went up from the campers, and I felt . . . weird, like I'd been accepted. I couldn't remember the last time anybody had cheered for me, much less a hundred people and satyrs and wood nymphs.

Before I could start feeling too warm and fuzzy, or even wipe the snout-grime off my lips, the stuffed boar's mouth opened all by itself and let loose an enormous belch right in my face. Everybody roared with laughter. It was a practical joke – a trick boar.

A new chant started: Throw him in! Throw him in!

The guys carried me down to the canoe lake.

I saw what was coming, but I wasn't worried about getting wet. I was thinking: Please don't let this be like the bathroom. Don't hose everybody down.

I didn't need to worry. I went straight in – SPLOOSH! – and right down to the bottom.

When I came up gasping, everybody cheered. Luke and some of the other guys hauled me out and clapped me on the back.

We all headed down to the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led the sing-a-long. We sang camp songs and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel like anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt like I was home.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.

My fingers curled around the minotaur horn. I thought for a moment about my mom, but they were good thoughts – her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.

When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.

That was my first day at Camp Half Blood.

I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.


Special thanks to Facebook and MortalNet. Copied the clip from MortalNet and they reminded me that I haven't posted this. Haha.