To Apollo, Sally seems a “witch to rival Circe,” since she has cleaned up Meg from a “street urchin” into a “shockingly pretty young girl” (36). Meg reminds Apollo of Daphne, a river spirit whom he once dearly loved and who had to turn into a tree to escape Apollo’s one-sided love. Apollo clarifies that his admiration of Meg is not romantic at all; rather, Meg looks like the daughter of his former love. Apollo learns the reason behind Percy’s busy demeanor: He is studying for the SAT and the DSTOMP—Demigod Standard Test of Mad Powers—so he can be accepted at the prestigious New Rome University for demigods. Meg gets cagey when Percy asks her about her parents and tells him she never knew them well.

Sally brings the youngsters tortilla chips and her famous seven-layer dip. Assuming Sally has invented the dip in his honor, seven being Apollo’s number, Apollo is overjoyed. Well-fed, Apollo gets into a better mood and has a strange desire to “fire up an Xbox and play Call of Duty” (39). Percy learns about Apollo being in Meg’s service. According to Apollo, he has been turned into a mortal twice before, including one time along with Percy’s father, Poseidon, when the two gods were forced to serve Laomedon, the king of Troy.